


How To Be A Hero

by eviesthirlwzll



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, MEVIE, Pre-endgame, Tony Stark has a daughter, mal is a disaster, most of them are gay but maybe i'll do some straight ships too?, she just needs a hug, uma is like her dad, we're all pretending that hades and morgan stark doesn't exist ok?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-27
Updated: 2020-06-09
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:28:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 44,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23869807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eviesthirlwzll/pseuds/eviesthirlwzll
Relationships: Audrey Rose/Uma (Disney), Ben/Harry Hook, Evie/Mal (Disney), Gil/Jay (Disney: Descendants), Jane/Carlos de Vil, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Comments: 21
Kudos: 59





	1. D I S C L A I M E R

**_I do not own Marvel or the Descendants franchise. What I do own is the plot. Reminder that this story is for the sole purpose of entertainment._ **

**_Another disclaimer is, if you're an MCU fan who knows the complete timeline of the movies, phase one is pretty messed up here because we're moving Iron Man 2 to 2001, hence, the current timeline in the first chapter would be in 2002. I promise it's for the sake of the story and everything would be as it is in phase two._ **

**C H A R A C T E R S**

**_[ Maleficent Bertha Moors ]_ **   
_— former red room trainee_   
_— strategic homeland intervention, enforcement and logistics division (SHIELD) agent_   
_— "inferno"_

**_[ Evelyn Grimhilde Stark ]_ **   
_— daughter of Tony Stark, the only heir of stark industries_   
_— inventor of nanotechnology  
_ _— the newest avenger_

**_[ Carlos Oscar de Vil ]_ **   
_— stark industries intern_   
_— Tony Stark's apprentice_   
_— the strategic homeland intervention, enforcement and logistics division's, "guy in the chair."_

**_[ Joseph "Jay" Sadiq ]_ **   
_— strategic homeland intervention, enforcement and logistics division agent_   
_— STRIKE team_   
_— Clint Barton's apprentice_

**_[ Uma Calypso Fury ]_ **   
_— daughter of SHIELD director, Nicholas J. Fury_   
_— SHIELD agent, member of the STRIKE team_   
_— uses skillful and deadly blows using swords_

**_[ Harry Sebastian Hook ]_ **   
_— midtown high school's top achiever_   
_— knowledgable in vibranium and its functions without stepping foot in Wakanda_   
_— a contributor to Evie Stark's experiments_

  
**_[ Gillian Luke Legume ]_ **   
_— SHIELD agent trainee_   
_— has mastered precision, strength and speed_   
_— Bruce Banner's laboratory assistant_

**_[ Benjamin Florian Beau ]_ **   
_— son of the city mayor and nephew of "Mr. Secretary," Alexander Pierce_   
_— a rebel against his family and HYDRA_   
_— Steve Rogers' apprentice_

**_[ Audrey Rose Mountbatten ]_ **   
_— midtown high's decathlon team co-captain_   
_— an undercover SHIELD agent_   
_— creator of the "female replacement intelligent digital assistant youth" or FRIDAY used by Iron Man_

**_[ Aaliyah Jane Carter ]_ **   
_— niece of SHIELD founder, Peggy Carter, younger sister of SHIELD agent, Sharon Carter_   
_— a trainee under the logistics department_   
_— a skilled hacker and programmer who SHIELD uses for missions_

**_[ Li Lonnie ]_ **   
_— a vigilante working under a branch of SHIELD_   
_— formerly trained in china and is aware of the sanctums located there_   
_— educated in the mystic arts_

**_[ Chad Stephen Charming ]_ **   
_— the heir who sold hammer industries to Tony Stark_   
_— a HYDRA agent secretly working for SHIELD_   
_— trained by the navy seal and Natasha Romanoff_


	2. один

**_November 17, 2002_ **

"I thought, Fury said that he didn't want me in his super secret boyband?"

Tony Stark was a man full of mystery, secrets, mad ideas. The Da Vinci of their time. _The Merchant of Death_.

The only thing that ever mattered to him was money, women and his own fun. Or, at least, so everyone thought.

Because the Tony Stark who was asking the question right now wasn't, "Tony Stark, Merchant of Death," it was, "Tony Stark, Iron Man."

He furrows his eyebrows, completely confused to why they weren't talking when they were the ones who asked him for his help.

"Uh, Romanoff? I need an answer so our conversation would flow?" He says sarcastically, knocking on the table to grab her attention. It does, because the Black Widow moves from her spot, leaving Phil Coulson alone.

"It's not about the Avengers. It's— this is something more personal." She replies coldly, looking around at his photos, perfectly framed, polished and cleaned. The face of a little baby turning to what looks like a six year old gracing each picture.

Tony watches her as she takes one of the frames, noticing how Natasha's lips twitch into a small smile before putting it down, he raises an eyebrow. Guess the agent has a soft spot for children.

The Black Widow just keeps quiet, analyzing every photo, ever little smile that the little girl held, she raises her gaze towards the billionaire, "This your daughter, Stark?"

Still staring at the photos, Tony Stark comes up behind her, his hands inside his pockets as he smiled fondly at the image of his child. "Her mother died while giving birth to her. I remember taking the news and hiding her from the public," He trails off, frowning deeply when the Black Widow turns to him, regaining his composture, he smiles, answering her question, "But, yeah, she is my daughter."

Clearing his throat from the billionaire's doors, Coulson grabs their attention, pointing to the folder lying haphazardly on the desk, Natasha jumps, remembering the reason why she was here in the first place.

"Stark, before I tell you even a single thing about this mission, are you in or are you not?" She asks, clutching the folder as Tony stands on the other end of it, turning to his suits, then back towards her, "Who's in the mission? Just us or is SHIELD working with us?"

"SHIELD's way too busy searching for the Tesseract. It's just us," Natasha pauses, turning to Coulson who lets out a sheepish smile, "And some of my agents. We're here to help too." He answers, earning a smile from the genius as he sits down, "I'm in. What's this about?"

"I've been going through missions, covers, everything and I found out where the Red Room is now." She starts, sitting down right across from Tony as she slides the folder, the man stops it, takes one look at it and opens it, reading every information. Ranging from who is running it, what it was doing and where it was.

"So, basically, we're stopping a dance studio?" He asks, furrowing his eyebrows, just completely confused to why the Russian spy was so eager to do this mission, Natasha shakes her head, "It's not just a 'dance studio,' there's something more to the Red Room." She mutters, right from the bat, just from the tone and expression on the spy's face, Tony knew that there was something, _more_ , to why she was acting like this.

"Why is it a big deal, then, Romanoff? What's with this Red Room you want to infiltrate?" He asks, throwing the folder aside as he peered to the Russian's eyes, trying to coax out any secret, any detail. She doesn't let him. Or, at least, not anything that would be personal.

"The Red Room is the place where I was trained to be the spy I am today, Stark. And right now, they've captured more children, trained more of them. Worst case scenario, maybe even _killed_ them. Now, are you going to help us or not?" She asks, coldly, her eyes blank, yet she keeps her gaze fixated on the genius, never leaving his sight.

"When do we do this? Hell, how do we even do this? All we know is in this stupid folder." He replies, standing up, turning his back against them, not really wanting to be involved but at the same time, he wants to. He feels like he _needs_ to. "Stark, you're our only hope. Thor's back in space, we couldn't contact Barton and Banner just disappeared."

"Why are they related to this?" He asks instead, leaning on the counter as Coulson shrugs, "You know why, Mr. Stark. You're our only hope." He answers, clutching the seat where Natasha sits, hoping that he, that Tony Stark, Iron Man himself would help.

"It's tomorrow. Look, I just need you to show up, be my back up, maybe call the police with your tech, I don't know, okay? I just need to make sure that those kids are safe. Please, Tony, just this once, help me." Natasha pleads, guilt reflected on her face as Tony nods. "My daughter has a recital tomorrow."

"And? What am I supposed to do? Teach her ballet to have you come?" She asks, a little furious but keeping her calm nonetheless, Tony shakes his head at her, "No, I'll just catch up after that."

In one swift motion, Natasha was out of her chair and in front of him, glaring at the hero as he stares at her, "No." She says, jabbing a finger on his chest, her nails clanging on the metal plate that covered it, he smiles, "It wasn't a question. You want my help, you'll get it. But I have to go to my daughter's recital."

And just like that, he was out of the room, bolting up the stairs as he leaves the two SHIELD agents behind. Natasha sighs, turning to Coulson, "Get your team ready, we're doing it tonight."

Just a floor above them, Tony opens the door to a room, leaning on a doorway as he finds the little girl, _his_ little girl, dancing in front of a mirror as she wore her tutu. "Knock knock."

Looking up from the floor, Evelyn Stark or Evie, for short, stares at her father, showcasing her toothless grin as she rushes towards him. "Dad!" She grins, jumping up at him as he twirls her around.

"Hey there, princess. You look like you've been practicing." He chuckles, perching her on top of his shoulders as they get out of her room, stopping in their tracks when they see Natasha and Coulson, waiting patiently for him.

"Dad, who's the pretty girl?" Evie whispers, poking her dad's head as he walks over to them, giving them a look, signaling them to somehow, "act normal."

"This is my friend, Natasha. She— she's a superhero too, like me." He answers, earning a little glare from the redhead that was quickly washed off with a smile when Evie gasps, "Then that's Agent Coulson. That's your mom's friend." He continues, referring to Pepper, she smiles at him.

"Look, princess, how about you wait for me in your room and I'll tell you a story, yeah? I just have to talk to them."

The little girl nods eagerly, sending one last look to Natasha before entering her room. The spy smirks, "Huh, the media would go in a frenzy if they see Tony Stark acting like that." She jokes, hearing the man scoff as he leans on the head of the chair, "What are you still doing here?"

Smiling, Natasha stands up, "Suit up. I'll put your daughter to bed." She says, walking to the direction of the girl's room when Tony follows her, "What?"

"You said she had a recital. So, let's do the mission tonight. I wouldn't want to be the reason why you're going to miss her special day." She answers, her hand already holding the doorknob as Tony contemplates on it, his mind racing back and forth, the spy just stares at him.

"Are we even ready?" He asks, whispering, clutching her arm as fear instills itself inside his mind. He may do the mission now but what if he still misses his daughter's recital, what if he doesn't come back home?

As if reading his thoughts, Natasha sighs, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder, "I'll get you out of there alive, I promise." She smiles before shoving him away, opening the door to the little girl's bedroom, watching her move, watching her struggle a little with her balance.

"You know, you should outstretch your arms when doing that. It helps you balance yourself." Natasha speaks, earning the child's attention as she turns around, blushing uncontrollably, guilty that she got caught. And _not_ by her father.

"I don't think I know your name yet." The spy continues, sitting on her bed as Evie climbs on it as well, wrapping the sheets around her as she stares at the redhead, "It's Evie."

She smiles, humming a little tune that makes the girl yawn, "Are you really friends with my dad? Weren't you my mom's assistant just a few months ago?" Evie asks, remembering where and how she saw the woman before, Natasha chuckles.

"I'm a spy, little girl." She answers, kinda impressed that you know, for such a young age, the girl knows what was happening around her. Who was around her. Then, Natasha remembered why she was even here.

"Look, I promised your dad that I'd send you to sleep, so, would you be a good girl and do it for me?" She asks, not really aware how to handle stuff like this. She was a spy, not a babysitter.

Evie nods, yawning a little as Natasha turns the light off, "Can I call you Auntie Nat?" She asks, stopping the russian spy on her tracks, halting her from opening the door. She smiles. "Okay, Evie. Now go to sleep, goodnight."

Natasha wasn't able to resist the smile on her lips when she hears the faint whisper of, "Goodnight, Auntie Nat," from the little girl. She was a lot of things and _this_ wasn't one of them.

Natasha meets Coulson outside, hearing the little machine like sounds coming from the garage, she sees Tony, in full gear. "Are your men ready?" Natasha asks Coulson, "Not just them."

About to question who the hell was involved in this, a helicopter whirrs in the distance, the logo of SHIELD attached to its doors as Maria Hill and Nick Fury himself reveals themselves, earning Coulson a look of betrayal and surprise, the latter hidden by a mask of iron.

"I thought I told you not to say anything about it?" She asks, hissing at the man when Nick chuckles, "And I thought you knew that we keep track on everyone. The moment the file got lost, I knew you had something to do with it."

Taking a deep puff of air, Natasha was mentally face-palming herself as Tony opens his helmet, "Wait, so you're with us now?" He asks, pointing to the one eyed man as he nods, "Am I still needed or?"

"You're still needed. You're the only one who could fly." Maria Hill responds, cutting Natasha off as they all began overlapping each other, arguing indistinctly as Fury groans.

"Look, can we just _please_ get this over with?" He asks, stopping their arguing as they all nod, mumbling their apologies while they walked towards the chopper, "I have a seven year old daughter waiting for me at home so if you don't want bullets lodged in your _mother fucking_ brains, I have to be home before midnight."

That seemed to catch Tony off-guard, furrowing his eyebrows as he looks at the man incredulously, "You have a child?"

"Yeah, he does. Even I don't believe it." Natasha scoffs, taking the firearms inside the chopper as Fury clicks his tongue, completely annoyed by the spy and the billionaire as they talked about his daughter.

"Stark, are we clear?" Fury asks over their comms as Tony flew above the building. An unsuspecting place, somewhere on the edge in the city of Los Angeles, "Jarvis, would you take a quick scan on the building?"

As his AI complied, he sees two armed men up on the roof, four more in the level below, children on the third and more people inside the ground. "I see children and you won't like where they are."

At his reply, Natasha gulps, watching from below the ground as they wait for a signal. Tony shoots the two men up on the roof, "Knocked two of them down, the roof is clear."

With that, the chopper flies again, landing on the roof as Maria Hill, Fury and Natasha arm themselves, all ready to take on whoever was inside.

"Showtime." Tony mutters, crashing inside the third floor window and shooting two guards down with his repulsers as they try to attack him. Soon enough, more guards come in his way. "Hi, fellas."

"That's three." Natasha pants, gunning another man down as Maria shoots another, "Make it four."

The two women share a glance, silently telling each other to separate as Fury handles his own thing. They had put down five more men in the process before they met with Tony, on the ground floor where they were surrounded by women. Natasha gulps.

They were Widows, trained killers, generated murderers. People who kill. People like _her_.

In total, there were four of them and twelve of the girls. They were severely outnumbered. "Am I supposed to be scared?" Tony asks, looking around as he hesitates to put his hands up, questioning himself if he should shoot. Natasha nods.

"You should be fucking frightened, Stark." She replies, about to attack, Tony freezes, unable to move his suit, "Jarvis? Buddy, what's happening?" He asks, panic written all over his face as the voice of his AI begins to be distorted.

"It seems like our system is being overridden, sir." He answers calmly, Tony grunts, "Open up." He whispers, letting the suit open as he moves away from it, tapping his watch intensely as his suit crumbles to the ground. "Our one advantage. Damn it, Stark." Fury mutters, raising his gun as they all put their backs together, aiming at the Widows, even Tony who held a small handgun, given to him by Natasha.

"Fuck it." Natasha mutters, shooting her shot and actually shooting one Widow down. Next thing they knew, everything was in chaos.

Fury shoots one more down before getting tased in the back, sending him down on his knees as he grabs for his gun, throwing it up that it hits her head. Giving him a small window of time to shoot her.

Just a few steps away from him, Maria fights off one Widow in front of her as one attaches herself on her back. Leading her to shoot the one in front of her blindly as she rushes to the wall, pinning the Widow down that it knocks her unconscious.

While they had an easy run, Tony and Natasha were struggling, both handling Widows from left and right. Some of them even had bites. Their signature weapon.

"Any minute now!" Tony yells, hitting one of them on the head as he raises his arm, just in time for his suit to come flying inside, piece by piece.

Natasha lets out a sigh of relief when he sees that, shooting two women down from her back, taking a breather before jumping into action again, getting help from the billionaire as he sends the Widows flying in the air, their bodies hitting the floor with cracks and loud thuds.

"Is—is that the last one?" Fury pants, returning his gun to its holster, his hands on his hips as Natasha takes one more swing at a Widow, "No, _that_ was the last one." She replies, trudging up the stairs as she opens the door where all the children were, all weeping, searching for anyone to save them and it came. Iron Man was here. They were safe, surely.

"Coulson, send them in now." Hill whispers into her comms as she checks around, looking for any more threats when Tony wanders, staring at the hallways and the rooms when he hears crying from inside one of the rooms, his heart stops.

Sure, his demeanor on the exterior was cold and you know, douche-y but he's a father too. No child should've experienced this and right now he just wants to help.

So, he opens the door, seeing a small blonde girl sitting in there, knees drawn to her chest as she sobs, rocking herself back and forth until she notices the man on the door, staring at her, walking towards her.

She snaps. Jumping up to her feet quickly as she launches herself on the man, wrapping her legs around his neck as he brings her down. Wow, for a kid she sure as hell was strong.

From the other room, Natasha hears a loud thud, deciding to trust her gut and follow it, she does, not regretting a single second of it when he sees Tony Stark's ass getting beat by a child.

Like, sure, she should go and help but damn, this was a grown ass man and he can't even protect himself.

The only time Natasha considered helping was when a blade comes into play. Shoving Tony out of the way as she comes face to face with the small girl, kneeling in front of her, "я здесь не для того, чтобы причинять тебе боль."

That earns a confused look from the small girl, "I don't speak Russian." She mutters, lowering the blade as Natasha puts her hand out, "What I said was, I'm not here to hurt you. I'm here to get you out of this shit-hole."

"Romanoff, I don't think a child should he-" The spy sends him a glare before turning to the girl again, "What's your name?" She asks, staring at green tense eyes, hesitantly, the small girl clears her throat before whispering, "Mal."

Smiling, Natasha extends her bloodied hand, "Well, I'm Natasha then." She introduces herself, somehow feeling redeemed when the girl shakes her hand. "Your name means bad, do you know that?" She asks, tilting her head and softening her gaze as Mal nods, "But I'm not bad. Just badass."

Laughing, Natasha takes her hand, walking with her outside where the FBI and the rest of SHIELD were, taking in the rest of the children when Fury stops her, "Romanoff, the child, where are you taking her?"

Stopping in her tracks, Natasha turns to Mal, "Do you have any family to go home to?" She asks gently, the girl shakes her head, raising her hand and doing a throat slit motion with it. "I was raised by my mother but then, she died. I don't know who my dad is."

With that answer, Natasha looks back at Fury, "I'm taking her."

Giving her a confused look, Fury approaches her, "Where?"

"To the place where she's supposed to be."


	3. два

"Where––where am I?" Were the first words to even come out of Mal's mouth the moment she leaves the chopper, hands clutching Natasha's own as they entered the building, multiple agents flooding each floor. She smiles, "Welcome home, soldier. This is the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division."

Letting go of the spy's hand, Mal begins to wander about, looking over the edge of the roof, staring at the glass panes that shows what was inside, seeing agents train in the dead of the night. She gasps, turning to the super spy with a gleam in her eyes, "I get to live here now? And, by the way, that's a mouthful."

Usually, at this time of day, Natasha would've ignored you but this time, she doesn't. She smiles at her, even letting out a faint chuckle, "Yeah, I know. That's why we call it SHIELD. You'll be living with me until you're old enough to have your own room. Does that sound okay to you?" She asks, kneeling in front of the small girl, wrapping her with a towel as she nods, "Are you my mom now, then?"

Natasha could only smirk, shaking her head as she leads the girl towards her room, "How about a friend, huh, Mal?" She asks, taking her to the elevators, the girl furrows her eyebrows, "We're best friends from now on." She answers, smiling brightly at the spy as she tilts her head, surprised at the girl's immediate trust, "Uh, no, just friends."

"It wasn't a question." The blonde responds, earning a questioning look from the russian spy, "Hey, that's not the attitude I want under my roof." She warns, opening her doors when Mal sticks her tongue out, "Technically, this is SHIELD's roof, not yours." She answers, smirking up at the woman who only gasps, "Wow, I did not expect this from a four year old."

Arching her brows, Mal stares at her, a little offended as she plops down on the couch, "For your information, I'm _six_ , not four." She responds, frowning and crossing her arms as Natasha scoffs, "No offense but you're too small for a six year old." She answers, sitting beside the girl, "Do you trust me, kid? Because I literally have no idea why I even brought you here. Let alone raise you."

Mal just shrugs, nodding her head a little before looking around the apartment, "You look like you haven't burned this place to the ground yet. So, yeah, I trust you. You may fuck up at times but that's okay, everyone does."

"Language, kid. I don't care if this is SHIELD's roof, you're still in my room and under my care. I make the rules here." She says sternly, closing her eyes and tipping her head back as she falls asleep. Mal follows those rules for the next few days.

And, like she told Natasha, she did fuck up, maybe more than just a couple times, but that doesn't mean she stopped trusting her. Because right now, in this imperfect world, all they had was each other.

"Wake up, squirt." Natasha greets, yawning herself as she shakes the slightly bigger girl awake, it's been a month, maybe more, it doesn't matter. She's practically aware of the child's patterns by now. "I don't want to." She mumbles, covering her eyes from the light, Natasha chuckles.

"Guess what today is?" She whispers, poking the smaller girl as she ushers more people inside, some of Mal's friends from the SHIELD staff, some she made from the training areas inside the building, some of them were just random people that she somehow became friends with.

She growls, turning her body away from the super spy as she puts a pillow above her head, Natasha sighs, taking it away and jumping to her feet so Mal would open her eyes. She does. Her scowl was replaced by a smile when she was tackled by her friends. There was Jay, who she met while wandering about. He was the son of an agent in here, at seven years old, he knew simple moves that would bring an unarmed person down the ground. 

Then, there was also Audrey, another child of an agent, the only difference is that both her parents were agents, one working in the logistics department, one was an undercover spy. Much like Natasha, her mother, Aurora, was a shadow. She met Mal when she saw the girl climbing inside the vending machine. She decided to join her. It was Clint Barton who found them, their bodies halfway inside the machines.

There was also Ben, Secretary Pierce's nephew, the mayor's son too. Albeit their positions, for a child he was pretty humble. Mal met him when she was looking around, searching for Natasha to complain about her being late when he bumps into her, fully apologetic. They became friends ever since.

Then, finally, there was Uma, the director's daughter. Nick Fury's child. While Mal met most of her friends accidentally, Uma was one person she was actually introduced to. It was a sunny, November morning, Natasha brought her to the top of the building, where Nick was, a smile on his face as he talks with his daughter.

She meets Uma, hair braided, a small, cocky smirk on her face as she shakes Mal's hand. It was odd, to be fair, but somehow, they just clicked, instantly. Just with a handshake, they automatically became best friends and were inseparable ever since.

"Happy Birthday, Champ." Clint Barton greets from the door as Natasha re-enters, now holding a stack of pancakes with whipped cream and an obnoxious purple candle, the little girl grins, rushing to the spy and hugging her legs until Natasha had to hand away the plate.

"Hey, what's with the clingy stuff today?" She chuckles, removing Mal from her as the girl sits back on the bed, "Come on! Make a wish!" Jay urges her, clapping his hands together as Audrey too joins in on the fun, chanting, "Wish!" over and over again until Mal closes her eyes.

Everyone keeps quiet, you know, for a while, until she blows the candle, earning smiles from everyone inside the room before Fury orders them to go, letting the children spend the day wandering around the building on their own.

"Can you believe it? You're seven now! That means you're just as old as Jay and Uma!" Audrey grins happily as she claps Mal's back, the girl scoffs, "I may be their age but I'm definitely more mature than them."

That began their playful bickering until they bumped into Rumlow, sporting a small smile as he sees the children, "You kids lost?" He asks, wiping his gun as they shake their heads, mesmerized by the black metal plate, small enough to fit in their hands, lethal enough to take someone's life.

Mal was seven when she first held a gun, when she first pulled the trigger as the gunshot rang across the range, thankfully, she had protective gear on or else she's deaf from all the loud ringing.

Natasha stands behind her, guiding her, helping her like a mentor. Not like a monster. Not like how she was taught or how Mal was supposed to be taught. This wasn't the Red Room, this was SHIELD, and, she's going to do the best she could to help Mal.

Mal pulls the trigger again, squinting at the target as she hits the bullseye, she tries it again but only this time, with one hand. She still hits it. "Wow, surprised you didn't shoot me yet." Natasha jokes sarcastically as Mal rolls her eyes, "Talk more and I will."

"Hey, what are the rules? I thought no talking back was pretty clear?" She asks, taking the gun away and removing the gear as Mal frowns, still wanting to shoot, to see what she could do. "It's my birthday?" She tries negotiating, it doesn't work. But still, it doesn't stop her from sneaking out.

Natasha knew, actually, she _saw_ , but she pretty much decided to let it go. She wasn't killing anyone anyways so what was the point of stopping her? Plus, she's in SHIELD, might as well let her use her capabilities. And boy did those capabilities grow.

Mal was _eight_ when she learned that Uma was great at using blades in a fight, whether it was a small pocket knife, a large katana or even a damn butter knife, the girl knew how to handle it.

"I don't understand how your knives stick to walls and mine doesn't." Jay sighs, frustratedly throwing another pocket knife from behind the barrier as Uma throws hers with ease, the knife sticking easily on the target.

"It's because you use too much force, plus, it doesn't even rotate. Flick your wrist and throw it slightly less forceful." Audrey responds, nose stuck inside her textbook as Ben sits beside her, peeking over her shoulder as he reads along.

Mal just watches the two, seeing them bicker about throwing the knife and seeing Uma throw it with ease. Mal tries, and she does it, but she wasn't as good as Uma.

Mal was _nine_ when she met Jane. It was the winter of '05, Christmas was just around the corner and more kids were being brought into SHIELD each day. Some were there just to be with their parents, some were there to enjoy the small playground, some of them do both.

It was practically noon when Mal decides to go down the playground, wanting to take her mind off of where Natasha was, if she was okay, if she was fine. She just wants to know if Budapest is just one of the places she goes to, not one of the last ones.

She sits on the swing, pushing herself back and forth until she stops, hearing a thud and a groan. She gets off of the swing immediately, taking a look to what, or in this case, _who_ she just hit.

The kid seemed unfamiliar to her but helped her nonetheless, offering a hand as she dusted her off, smiling at her, "I'm sorry about that. Are you— are you new here?" She asks, questioning the girl as she stares at her blue eyes, "Yeah. Sorry, I stopped you." She mumbles, shying away from the blonde.

The nine year old just bares her teeth, offering a hand out, "Well, I can be your first friend, then. I'm Mal, Mal Moors. But some call me Romanoff." She admits, shrugging slightly as the girl accepts her hand, "I'm Jane. Jane Carter."

Mal was _ten_ when she learned about Thor. It was simple, really, she was pretending to be asleep when Natasha bursts inside their room, sitting tensely beside her as she shakes the girl awake, Mal doesn't move for a dew seconds before facing her.

"What is it?" She mumbles, sitting up, rubbing her eyes and yawning for show as Natasha smirks, "Remember when I told you that I'd get you something from a magical thing?" She asks, piquing the interest of the ten year old as she nods eagerly.

It doesn't even take long before Natasha was dragging her, taking her away from their room as they snuck past the guards, acting like they were siblings, avoiding their parents.

Some might say that they _are_ siblings with the bond they've created over the years but that was always dismissed by the spy and the child. That still doesn't stop everyone from saying they are nonetheless.

Natasha opens the door to the lab, the door creaking slightly before she and Mal enters, the blue glow emitting from the Tesseract, "It's not yours but I'll see if you can use it." Natasha mutters, arms crossed as she looks down on the girl, "Yeah, don't. Last thing I want is to get you fired. I like you enough to care for you."

Natasha scoffs, shaking her head as she takes a deep breath, "Nice to know I'm not the only one who feels that."

Mal was _eleven_ when she starts training. Actually training. Along with agents, spies, shadows. Everyone.

It wasn't just roughhousing with Jay anymore, this was serious. This was, this was the same thing she was taught all these years except this was more advanced, more precise, more clean. This was _deadlier_.

She enters the ring, with absolutely no idea how to fight, she just went there, unaware of the consequences but at the same time, aware of everything. She was smart, Mal was deadly. She was a fucking entity you could not mess with.

That's why she became the top achiever during their training. Overrunning the quickest on the STRIKE team, having more accuracy than Clint Barton himself, takes the director's ass down on combat. Mal was deadly before. But she just turned deadlier now that she's trained.

Mal was _twelve_ when she creates her first weapon, something related to the Tesseract. Something that could get Coulson fired but hey, he wasn't okay? He just let her in the lab. You know, after hours.

"What the fuck am I supposed to do with you?" She mumbles, staring at her supplies, ranging from bullets to missiles, from wood to literal sapphires. _Everything_ was here.

She doesn't really know how or even why she was doing this but next thing she knew, after fucking up some cables and some metal scraps, the Tesseract was glowing, powering her weapon.

Mal was twelve when she created a power surge around New York City, when she created one of the thing she held most dearest today. One of the things Natasha tried to ask Tony Stark to replicate and upgrade, the one thing Mal was able to call hers. Her fire launcher.

She was _thirteen_ when she first meets Lonnie. Training had just began and there was this new girl, or at least from her body shape that's what Jane and Audrey expected her to be.

"I'm telling you, that's a boy." Uma says one more time before Ben shakes his head, watching from the sidelines, "Yeah, that's a girl. Are you blind?"

Uma just sends him a glare before flipping him off, entering the ring as she and Mal began to spar. "You're a wuss, you know that?" Mal taunts, dodging Uma's swing as she lands her own blow, the girl chuckles, "Yeah, you fucking wish."

And just like that they were at it. Dodging punches, landing kicks, sliding across the ring, shielding their faces. Everything was coordinated, perfectly choreographed by the two using only their bond when it gets messed up. When someone joins in.

Next thing she knew, Uma was on the sidelines, clutching her stomach as Mal handled the new kid on her own, dodging her, punching her, doing her best to be the one who's remaining in the ring. Doing her best to make Natasha proud.

And she does. Because one leg wrap later and the kid was down, a foot shoved down her chest as Mal smirks, "Name's Mal, you were pretty good." She smiles, offering her hand to which the girl, Ben was right, takes, grunting in pain as she stands up, "Lonnie. Nice to meet you."

Mal was _fourteen_ when she becomes friends with the Man Out of Time, the Super Soldier. Captain America, Steve Rogers himself. It was a surprise, actually, all she remembers was Natasha not coming back in their room for dinner, instead, coming back when Mal was ready to go and check for her.

"The hell you doing up so late?" She asks Mal who only raises her eyebrow, removing one of her earbuds as she stares at the older woman incredulously, "You're asking me? What are _you_ doing that you come home this late?" She retorts, earning nothing from her roommate, "It's nothing. I'm pretty sure Uma would tell you by tomorrow." She replies, removing her jacket and entering the bathroom when Mal pulls her back, "Nat, what's happening?"

The spy just stares at her, frowning, her lips pursed to a thin line as she contemplates on telling her, the one person she could tell secrets to. The one person she's close enough to call actual family. She decides to tell her.

"You know how Coulson had these vintage cards of the guy in the blue spandex?" She asks, crossing her arms and leaning on the bathroom door as Mal nods, "Yeah, the one with the ridiculous mask?"

Nat nods, "Well, we found his body. He just got defrosted and he ran away earlier. We had to contain him and talk him through. Poor guy, been frozen for more than seventy years." She mutters sadly, earning a frown from the blonde, "Wait, are we talking about a whole ass person here? You defrosted him? Like a chicken?"

Laughing, Natasha shakes her head, handing Mal her card, "Look, he's in the fourth floor, if you see a door that looks old, it's his. He could use a friend." She smiles before ruffling the blonde's hair, entering the bathroom as Mal puts on her earbuds again, going out of her room as she enters the elevator.

"Hey, don't you have school tomorrow, kid?" Clint asks when he sees the girl, entering the elevator as she presses the button for the fourth floor, Mal shakes her head, "There's a trip on Stark Tower tomorrow, I didn't want to go."

"Why? You don't want to see Tony Stark?" He chuckles, Mal shakes her head, laughing slightly as she clenches her jaw, remembering the faithful night she was saved from the Red Room, remembering how Tony had began contacting her since then, using Natasha as his bridge.

He wouldn't tell anyone but he's the reason she's even at school. Even she doesn't know it. All she knows is he sends her some random tech here and there. "I kicked his ass when he saved me from the Red Room. Besides, men like him aren't really my type to be friends with." She answers, backing away from the agent and waving him goodbye as she steps foot inside the fourth floor.

She looks around, turning on corners, going through hallways, running in circles until she finds the odd door Nat was talking about. While the rest of the building had metal for doors, there was this, wooden painted in white, its brass doorknob seemingly out of place.

She scans Natasha's card, granting her entrance as she opens the door, opening it slightly to see the room, only illuminated by a single light, the door to the balcony open as the curtains blow. "Hello?" She calls out, wanting to know if she could go in or not, Steve appears from the balcony doors, an eyebrow raised as he sees the blonde.

"Kid, are you lost?" He asks, walking towards her as he opens the door, the blonde girl smiles sheepishly, "So, it's true, Captain America really is here." She chuckles nervously, Steve sighs, nodding his head, "I don't think I've told you my name, it's Mal."

Accepting her hand, Steve smiles, letting her inside his room, opening more lights as Mal sits down on one of the chairs, "This is awkward. But, Natasha, you know? Redhead, slightly taller than me and leather jacket?" She says, earning a nod from Steve, remembering the woman he was speaking to earlier, "She told me that you needed a friend. I don't know why I even thought of coming here but hello."

"How old are you? Why are you here? Shouldn't you be at school?" He asks, leaning back on the chair he was sat on as the girl in front of him shakes her head, he might've been asleep for seventy years but he knows that being up until midnight in a school night isn't good.

"I'm not going to school tomorrow. I'm excused." She smiles, "So you're actually asleep for seventy years?" She asks curiously at the super soldier, he nods, "Yeah. I pretty much thought I was dead. I'd rather be dead." He mutters, frowning, refraining himself to cry, to break down. He's lost so much he wished he was lost himself.

"I thought _I_ was good as dead. But Natasha took me in."

The Super Soldier raises his eyebrows in confusion, tilting his head in confusion. "What do you mean?" He asks, leaning closer, his elbows on his knees as Mal licks her lips, about to tell her story. "I never actually told anyone, not even my friends, only Nat and Fury knows about this," She rambles, he stops her, "You know Fury?"

"Well, yeah. He's kinda like my uncle." She responds, Steve doesn't ask any more questions, just lets her continue as she takes a deep breath, "I was rescued from the Red Room when I was six. At that age you expect me to play dolls and dance, I did, kinda. I played with punching bags and danced with death. The same day they rescued me was also the same day I was about to kill a man, or else, they'll kill me." 

It was far from what Steve had expected but he understands, he was an experiment too. A science project, someone to be played with. "Yeah, I understand. How old are you?" He asks, the girl doesn't even blink, "Fourteen. I'm turning fifteen in a month."

Mal was _fifteen_ when she had her first mission. When she had her first chance to become someone she's trained for all her life. Turns out, when Steve discovered that fifteen was the age of you know, doing missions, being a hero, all that stuff, he personally asked Fury to give Mal hers. 

"Wait, you're telling me that I'm about to raid a fucking HYDRA base? _Me_?" She asks worriedly, pacing back and forth inside the quinjet as Natasha gives out orders, "Do you want me to do it?" The redhead asks bluntly, the sarcastic tone clearly _not_ appreciated by the blonde. 

"Why do I have to be the one who has this big ass entrance?" She asks, putting on her parachute, securing her mask as well, Natasha smirks, "Because while you distract them, I'll be the one taking care of everyone's ass and making sure we come out of there, alive." She says, pushing Mal off, the two of them soaring on the clouds, the darkness of the night making it a little hard for them to see. 

"You're a bitch, you know that?" She grunts, opening her parachute as Uma joins in over the comms, "What, me?" The girl chuckles, Mal doesn't respond when Jay joins in on too, "There's two guards where you're landing, Mal, they have their backs turned." Jane says, telling the blonde what she sees from the monitors, "Thanks, Jane."

She lands on the floor with a soft thud, cracking her knuckles, adjusting her mask once more before walking towards them, acting like she belonged there, shooting them with her weapon of choice, the 'FOGO' which literally means fire but Audrey says there's an acronym for it. Mal couldn't be bothered to remember the meaning. 

That's when more flood to the entrance, more people were shot, more people tried to shoot her and, despite being outnumbered, she was the victor. Shooting one more person on the head before entering, "Entrance is secured." 

She hears crackling over her comms before more parachutes emerge from the sky, she enters the base, surprised when one man attacks her from behind. "Oh, man. I thought I had some time for the vending machine!" She whines, kicking him on the groin while taking his arm, twisting it to an awkward position that leaves the man writhing in pain. "Bem-vindo ao inferno, _asshole_." 

From her peripheral vision, she sees two armed men on their way towards her, she shakes her head, grabbing the man she currently tormented and used him as a shield, letting him take the bullets while she rains actual fire from her wrists. 

She throws the man down, getting their weapons before entering the base deeper, shooting three men behind her as she goes down the stairs, her mission to secure the perimeter now getting started. 

From the other end of the line, Uma chuckles, shooting a guard down before talking to Mal, "What the hell did you just tell the poor dead guy?" She asks, walking over bodies while her best friend did the same, just throwing a dude from the lab on a wall, "I told him welcome to hell, he's surely going there anyways." 

And just like that, after a successful mission, after her first mission. She started saying that, it was her phrase, her brand. She becomes _Inferno_.

Mal was sixteen when she became an Avenger. Well, _sort_ of. "I swear, if I behead another one of those aliens, I'm going to fucking kill you, Fury." She threatens, entering Stark Tower while the actual Avengers handle the bigger picture, the entirety of New York. 

"Don't worry, kid, you're not. Just evacuate the ones on the top floor." He responds, his eyes set on the monitors as Loki moves, being arrowed down by Barton as Mal nods, putting her mask on before entering the elevator, humming the music as she evacuates the people on each floor. 

There was one floor where restrictions were, though, the one just below the top floor. The initials 'EGS,' which Mal pronounces as eggs because you know, for fun. She groans, holding the comms on her ear, "I'm unable to enter one floor. Stark, what do I do with this?" She asks, hearing the roar of the big worm things that's been flying around, "I'll grant you access, just give me a damn minute." 

Mal waits, leaning on the doors of the elevator until it opened, this floor was way different than the ones below or above it, she raises her eyebrows, scanning the room for any threat or anyone in particular when a smoke bomb detonates in front of her. Thankfully, her mask eliminates it and she wasn't affected, at all. Or, until someone drop kicks he to the ground. 

"Holy shit!" She yells, groaning in pain, clutching her stomach as she makes out the figure above her. She clenches her jaw, "What are you doing here?" The girl asks, straddling her as she points a blade on her neck, Mal chuckles, "I'm a SHIELD Agent, I'm here to evacuate you." 

Scoffing, the girl shakes her head, getting off of the blonde and helping her up, "I don't need anyone to save me." She says, tossing her black hair on her side as Mal watches, slightly mesmerized by the girl's beauty. That's when she realized who this was. "You're eggs." 

The girl raises an eyebrow, confused at what the agent was calling her when she turns to the elevator, rolling her eyes and snorting, "Idiot." She mutters, taking one of her father's helmets as she turns to the girl, "What are you doing?"

"I don't know, eggs, trying to save your ass?" She retorts, walking over her and taking her hand when she lets go, "It's not ' _eggs_ ' you moron, it's Evie. Evie Stark." She huffs, glaring at the blonde, "Look, it's my duty to save everyone in here, okay? Would you please fucking cooperate with me?" 

"I told you, I don't need sa––" Right at that moment, one of the Chitauri crashes through the window, then two of them, three, until seven were surrounding them. Mal groans, "You were saying?" She says sarcastically towards the Stark before holding her waist, shooting the aliens as she jumps off of the window, "HEY!"

Constant yelling was heard from Evie as she and Mal get closer and closer to the ground, Mal smiles, her heart feeling a little jumpy as she pulls the girl closer, "Open your damn eyes, it's fun!" She yells, still joking around despite nearing the ground at an alarming rate, Evie shrieks, "Are you crazy?"

"No, I'm flying!" The other girl retorts before opening up her gliders, one created by Ben, taken from one of their HYDRA raids as Audrey tweaks it, upgrading it so it wouldn't fail. Hesitantly, Evie opens an eye, seeing the ground before her as the agent soars around New York, dodging the streets that were closed. "Stark, where do I take your daughter?" 

"Take her to the Helicarrier!" Steve answers instead as Mal nods, "Look, I appreciate you cooperating with me before but I need you to do something again." She says, loosening her grip around the girl as Evie's eyes widen, her heart was racing and her adrenaline was off the charts, "What are you doing?"

"I need you to let go when I say so, okay?" Mal tells her, as calm as she could, Evie shakes her head, "Yeah, I pretty much wouldn't give you a choice, because I'm letting you go now." She mutters, dropping the girl on one of the Chitauri's vehicles before she turns her body, shooting her hook at it as she jumps on it as well. 

"Hi, aliens, thanks for the ride." She smiles, burning one of them to the ground as Evie takes care of the other one, literally kicking its head off before pushing the remains off of the vehicle. Mal tries her best to hijack it. "I didn't really catch your name." She pants, sitting down as she leans on the walled edge of the flying vehicle, Mal shakes her head. "It's Inferno."

Chuckling, Evie sighs, "I meant your real name." She repeats, hoping to know the girl's name as they approach the Helicarrier, Mal doesn't respond, just opens up one of the mirrored doors of the SHIELD Helicarrier before getting them inside, "I don't give my name out, princess."

"Can you at least show me your face?" She bargains, attempting to unhook Mal's mask from behind as the blonde takes her hand, shaking her head, "How about I show you my eyes instead, that cool with you?" She asks, waving Maria Hill off as she takes the Stark towards the monitors, Evie reluctantly agrees as Mal takes the upper portion of her mask.

The raven haired girl doesn't know _how_ and she doesn't know exactly _why_ but her breath was taken away as she stared at those shining emerald eyes. It seemed familiar, like she's seen it before. But, at the same time, it doesn't.

Mal doesn't even know why she's staring at the girl. Like, sure, she was pretty as fuck but that doesn't mean she should be staring, right? So, to clear the awkwardness, she clears her throat before putting it back on, "I should go. Alien invasion outside." She smiles, leaving Evie alone when she stops her for a while, "Thanks for saving me, green eyes." 

Mal just grins, thankful that her lips were covered by the mask, "My pleasure, princess. I'll see you around." 


	4. три

"Goodnight, Auntie Nat." She whispers, turning to her side as she sees the spy smile, closing her door softly, Evie waits for a few minutes before locking it, opening her lamp and throwing her tutu away as she opens her radio, "Harry, do you hear me?" She calls out, adjusting the radio's frequencies until she hears groaning from the other side, "Ah do now. It's late, Evie, why are ye callin' me?" He asks, Evie just grins, "Because I met a spy."

She hears shuffling from the other end, a groan somewhere in between and a gasp, "Spy? What spy?" He asks, peeking from his own window, just a street across from the young Stark, Evie hums, "I think she left." She mumbles, that eans her a disappointed grunt from the young Scottish lad, "Alright, then. Goodnight, Eves."

She then hears nothing from the other end, a signal that Harry had turned his radio off as Evie climbs back up on her bed, throwing the covers over her when the mechanical sound of her father's suit echoes around her room, confused, and well, a little excited, she jumps back on her feet again, peeking over her window as she sees Natasha, the other man, Coulson, if she remembers correctly and her father, donning his suit of iron, well, technically, it wasn't iron.

It was Nickel-titanium alloy, or even called nitinol. Evie knew the difference when she realized that literal iron would've weighed her father down. She's young, not dumb. At first, she doesn't realize what's happening until she sees and hears a helicopter from the distance. 

Curiosity gets the best of her as she continues watching, in awe as she stares at the two new additions to the small group. One was even wearing an eye-patch on them. Evie doesn't really know what they were arguing about but it was certain that her dad started it. He always does. People may find it annoying, but she finds it funny. And that's the thing that matters.

She hides under the window when her dad turns, hoping he doesn't even catch a _glimpse_ of her when he zooms away, his jet packs creating such a distinct and familiar noise, a signal, even, that he's out of the house, that he's gone for a mission and Evie's got his lab all to herself. All the scraps, the tech, everything. Bedtime? Yeah, fuck that.

She opens the door of her room, the lights from outside creeping inside as the door creaks, she closes it softly, her feet padding across the floor as she stealthily moves from the living room to her dad's garage.

The stairway down was pretty long for her, with the lack of height she has, but she arrives at the bottom nonetheless. Inputting the password she practically got out from Happy after the small girl blackmailed their head of security.

The doors open automatically and it was smooth sailing after that. Honestly, she's six and she can hijack her dad's suit. Their security system really needs to be upgraded.

From the corner of the huge workstation, she pulls out a small wooden box where her designs were, lists of items she needed all packed into one box. The items she needed were ranging from paper, nails to Vibranium, Uru and a literal space stone she's read about on her grandfather's files.

Evie wasn't just a kid. Hell, she wasn't just " _Tony Stark's Kid_ ," she was her own person. She was Evelyn Grimhilde. She doesn't even need the Stark to her name and she can be the brightest mind in all of New York. Sometimes, she is.

Taking deep breaths, she opens her father's desk, opening his AI's and powering up his bots. Dum-E looks at her, opening its claws as she smiles, "Welcome, Miss Stark, how can I be of help?" Jarvis asks from wherever he was, Evie smirks, already expanding her hologram, "Don't tell my dad and we'll be fine. Just don't be a damn snitch."

A little offended, despite being an AI, Jarvis hums, "I don't think your father would like hearing you say that, ma'am." He says, the girl doesn't respond at first, her hands on her chin as she stares at the prototype, "Jarvis, the thought of me in his lab is enough for him to disown me. A little language doesn't hurt. Can you please expand my hologram more, Jarvis?" She requests, the small bot already expanding more and more as Jarvis complies. She grins at what she sees.

"Would you mind if I asked you what this is?" He asks, helping the little girl on her project as she tweaks the bot a few more times, she doesn't speak, hinting that she doesn't want to answer him as she removes some of its components, adding more, adjusting it, doing everything she possibly could before slamming her two hands together, turning the large prototype to its supposed original size. "Jarvis, I need you to manufacture a box of these."

She says it as calmly as possible, encoding the parts on her father's computer as the AI complies, "Assuming you are to hide it, where do I put it, miss?" He asks, beginning the process when Evie smirks, "Don't. I want dad to see it."

While it might seem _very_ unrealistic for a child her age to be this intelligent, she just continues to prove, day by day, that it isn't. She might be a six year old and be intelligent. Hell, someone could be forty and stupid.

One of the reasons she knew that being like this was both right and real is when she saw her dad, treating her normally when she's literally speaking in terms not even a person who had enough general knowledge would understand.

If she was in the Harry Potter books, she would be deemed as the, "Brightest Witch of Her Age," because she actually was. And she doesn't even hide the fact that she is because look at her. At six years old, her first prototype of a nano-bot was created.

She was so invested in seeing Jarvis work that she doesn't even hear the doors opening, that she doesn't even see Happy Hogan behind her, arms crossed with a disappointed look on his face as he taps his foot, waiting for the girl to turn until he got bored, clearing his throat, finally grabbing her attention.

At first, Evie was planning to you know, kick him in the crotch and run away but then, she realizes that doing her plan would just land her in more trouble. So, instead, she smiles at him, even waving, all doing it innocently.

"Evie, what are you doing up? It's way past your bedtime." He says, holding his hand out for the raven haired girl to take, which she does, begrudgingly.

"I'm making a prototype, Happy. Can I _please_ stay up for an hour more?" She pouts, batting her eyelashes at him as she clasps her hands together, hoping that whatever she is currently doing was adorable enough that he would break and let her. He usually did but not this time. "No. Your mom's going to find out I agreed to you and your dad's going to find out you're messing with his lab again."

"I'm not! I promise. Just one more hour, please?" She rattles on, jumping up and down as cutely as possible until Happy sighs, groaning in defeat when the little girl pulls him towards the table. Returning to what she was doing before, watching Jarvis do the thing she was creating just a few minutes before. Happy watches her carefully, a little mesmerized and a little impressed by the six year old. Realizing how much she was like her dad. Just six and here she was, already doing things not even her own father could.

"What are you doing? Is that a toy?" He asks, getting invested as she programs the bots, one by one while Jarvis manufactures them, she shrugs, "Could be. One second it could be a toy gun, next second it's an actual gun." She replies casually, not even fazed by Happy's reaction.

"Are you—? Evelyn Grimhilde Stark are you creating a _weapon?_ " He asks disbelievingly at the child, his blood pressure already rising at an alarming rate as anxiousness filled his mind. Tony's going to fucking kill him if he even knew that he let this happen.

Evie giggles from her spot, pushing herself back as she grins up at Happy, "Relax, he's not going to fire you. Pinky swear." She says, offering her pinky to the older man, he looks at her hesitantly. "I'll accept that pinky swear if you promise to tell me what exactly you're doing. Is that a deal?" He asks, the girl nods eagerly, entwining their fingers together before she stands up, taking the box of finished bots, "This is a nano-bot. It's programmed to transform and multiply into something when ordered. Like I said, if I wanted a toy gun, it would be a toy gun. If I needed an actual gun, it would be an actual gun." She repeats, frowning when she realized that despite creating it, she's still far from actually doing something with it.

"What's it for? Why did you do it?" Happy asks, curiously examining the small inch of metal as the little girl climbs on the chair beside him, "Because dad's always taking a long time to suit up. I remember on the news, when you guys were in Morocco, it took him so long before he even gets his suit on."

Happy nods, not really fully understanding the concept of the child but he still stays there, and he stays quiet, enjoying the little girl's presence as they watch Dum-E clean their mess up. "Don't you have that recital tomorrow?"

Evie nods, yawning and rubbing her eyes tiredly as she stands up, "I'm going to sleep. Goodnight, Happy." She says, dragging her feet up the stairs. She doesn't even recall going into her room and jumping on her bed. All she remembers was trying to make her dad proud when she absolutely didn't need to. He already was. Just her being there was enough for him.

Happy stays behind, sitting on the same spot where he was and opening the TV when Tony comes flying in, his suit a a little scratched up, standing on his small platform that allows his bots to remove it. "Where were you?" Happy asks, a little concerned and a little annoyed, Tony doesn't speak until he was off of everything. "Your friend Romanoff dragged me on a mission. We saved a bunch of kids, got caught with the ones running the place."

The head of security turns to the billionaire, handing him the box of small bots Evie just made, "Evie told me this was for you. She calls it nano-bots, said that it will help you with your suit up a lot faster." He smiles, the expression growing wider by the second as he sees Tony become absolutely amazed, his mouth twitching up to a proud smirk as he scans it, "She made this? On her own?" He asks, asking for confirmation when Jarvis interferes.

"As a matter of fact, she did, sir. Miss Evie had been creating this for a while." The AI replies, leaving Tony a little shellshocked because hey, it wasn't a cat going through his stuff, it was his daughter.

"Aren't you going to do anything about it?" Happy asks, following Tony as the genius stands on his feet, improving the minor defects of his daughter's creation, "Why would I do anything about it? My kid's a genius."

"A genius, sure. But that, _thing,_ isn't it a little too dangerous? You could literally do anything with that." He retorts, Tony just shakes his head, "Look, Hap, I'm not going to let her go through with what I had gone through with my dad. She deserves to know that she's great. That she's doing amazing things. She's _six_ , Happy. She's six years old and she's already smarter than me."

Happy doesn't respond anymore, he just smiles, putting a hand on Tony's shoulder before leaving him alone.

The next day was pretty hectic, much to Tony's dismay because his ass literally just got kicked by children twice in a night. One was physically and the other just kicked his ass for being the smartest in the house. He shouldn't be surprised, though, she was always smart. She was always this intelligent ball of fluff that was already fluent in French the moment she turned four.

"Don't you look adorable?" Pepper smirks sarcastically as Evie sits on the table, messed up hair and wrinkled pajamas, a scowl on her face as she tries her best not to you know, throw a tantrum. She might be a genius but she's a kid too.

"Hey, what's with the frown? You should be smiling, you don't have to go to classes, just the recital." Tony jokes, Evie doesn't find it funny this time as she aggressively stabs her waffle with the fork, "I'm still sleepy." She yawns, shoving a forkful in her mouth. Tony raises an eyebrow.

"You're still sleepy? I thought I put you to bed early, little miss." He says, catching the girl a little off guard as she glares at him, thankfully, Pepper didn't catch it or else she'll freak. "You did, dad. I'm just tired." She mumbles, innocently shoving another forkful inside her mouth, Tony was impressed. For a kid, she wasn't much of a tattletale.

"Look, honey, once you're over, hop in the shower and I'll get you fixed. Recital's in an hour." Pepper tells her sternly, standing up and taking whatever finished plate she could get as Tony turns to his daughter, "You heard the woman, shower, okay?" He says, silently telling her not to sneak into the lab, she nods.

Scoffing, the blonde woman stares at the billionaire, "That goes for you too, Tony." She adds, leaving Evie in a fit of laughter before rushing to her bedroom, taking a shower and wearing her clothes, Pepper waiting for her, sitting on the queen sized bed that was way too big for a six year old. "You look beautiful, honey."

Smiling, Evie lets herself to be fixed by the older woman, adjusting her hair, putting on light makeup, either way she was beautiful. "You really think so?" The smaller girl asks, looking up at the blonde, Pepper grins, "Yes, I really think so. Your dad's lucky, you're smart too. I wish I was like you when I was growing up."

Looking back up at Pepper, the one woman she treated her mother, Evie smiles, "You're beautiful too. You're also smart. Dad and I are lucky to have _you_." She retorts, honestly, a six year old can lie with that, but Evie, through everything, Pepper was there. 

When her dad was still in this playboy, cocky, annoying ass phase, there was Pepper. She was there, taught her how to walk, taught her how to speak properly, taught her everything her real mother could've. When Tony hid her from the public to prevent any threats, when her dad became Iron Man, when he nearly died because he was kidnapped, Pepper. She was there when he couldn't. 

And then, just recently, her dad was an inch away from _dying_. His own reason for living, the only reason why he's literally living actually, killing him. Pepper was the one that took care of Evie during all of that. She was always the one taking care of her anyways. 

"Are you two done with your girl talk? Happy's not, er, happy, let's go." Tony chuckles, staring at his two girls, smiling when he sees his daughter, catching her in his arms as they head to the car, which was the easiest task.

Because the moment they get out of the car to enter the hall where the recital was held, reporters, paparazzi, news outlets, literally everyone was there, asking Tony Stark about his mission the night before. "Look, I'm here for my daughter, not to answer some questions from people that get their money off of invading someone else's privacy." 

Right after the final word, Happy pushes them out of the way, giving the family a clear path to enter the hall, "Good luck, baby, we'll see you inside." Tony smiles, kneeling down in front of his daughter, wishing her luck and hugging her before passing her on to Pepper, "We'll be at the front, okay?" 

Nodding, Evie goes off, joining her instructor and her friends, one of them was Jane Carter, she was shy, a year younger than her, but, you know, she's somehow Evie's only friend that's a girl. All her friends were boys, Harry, Carlos, Chad.

The two, now joined by Happy, enter the hall, taking the seats upfront as the lights dim, it took a little while, it took at least a group of much older dancers and then Evie comes in, dancing gracefully on her tiptoes as she twirls around, jumping with such ease, with such delicate movements, it brings tears to Tony's eyes. 

He remembers, the first time he learned that he has a daughter, the first time he heard her cry. It was over the security system, Jarvis just warned him about a basket being left in front of his door. They didn't see who dropped it, all they know is there was a note, a photo of Grimhilde and the baby. 

At first, he really wasn't planning on doing anything with her, maybe send her for adoption, he doesn't know. But, the moment the little baby stares up at him, smiling, drool dribbling down from the side of her lips, taking his finger in her small hands, he, Tony couldn't let go. 

Or the moment Rhodey asks who the hell this girl was, she didn't have a name, so, Tony just smiled, Evelyn Gimhilde Stark, that was who she was. She changed this man, in more ways the Iron Man suit could, in more ways Rhodey, Pepper or Happy could. 

"Are you seriously crying right now?" Happy asks his boss, the billionaire could only grin at his daughter, "Yeah. I'm so lucky I have her." 


	5. четыре

"You did _so_ great, honey." Tony greets his daughter the moment she's off of the stage, fully changed to more comfortable and casual clothing as she beams up at him, hugging him and giving him her little tiara, she scans around him, "Where's Pep?" She asks curiously, jumping up, peeking on Tony's side, going under Happy's legs. Pepper wasn't there.

Apologetically, Tony kneels down, "Pepper had to go and deal with something but, she told me to give you _this_." He smiles, handing her the small box his girlfriend had asked him to give the smaller girl, Evie takes it gratefully, opening it without tearing the wrapper as she gasps at what it was.

It's not like it was rare or out of this world but, it was exactly what she needed. Not that Pepper knew, it was a random gift but hey, she has it now. "Looks like it's just me, you and Rhodey. What do you say, kid? Let's go?" Tony grins, Evie doesn't speak yet, still mesmerized by the arc reactor. 

It was similar to her dad's, just a little smaller, a little lighter. "That can power up the whole house. While mine can power up the Hook's house too, I gotta say, that's not bad for a kid." He butts in, snapping her out of her thoughts as she stares up at her dad, she smiles, taking his hand and letting him lead the way back to their car.

This time, Happy knew better to meet them out back, where no one else was waiting for them, where no one was flashing cameras, pushing Evie aside. Tony enters the car with a smile, tapping his fingers on the leather seed, in tune with the music.

It took for them a while to break the silence, not really in the mood to talk but Tony had some plans, some things to tell his daughter. So, he turns to Evie, taking his glasses off and sighing, "You know, I'm thinking of giving the lab away." 

The girl looks up at him, eyebrows furrowed, clutching her seatbelt as her heart drops, "Why?" She asks, pouting at her father as he lets out a breath, "I'm thinking of giving at least half of it away, that way I could still use it, you know?" He replies, dismissing her question at first, Evie doesn't stop.

"But, why?" She questions again, holding her dad's hand as he smiles down on her, removing his hand from under hers as he extends it, "I don't know, partner? Wouldn't you need a place to make your inventions? Because I've seen what you can do, and honestly, I'm impressed."

Her jaw drops to the ground, eyes blinking rapidly as she gazed at her father's own eyes, staring back at her expectantly as he tilts his head, nudging it towards his hands to which she takes, shaking it, sealing their deal. "Although, there are some ground rules."

Evie doesn't even care if there were rules, all she heard was the lab, or at least, part of the lab was hers. She was so caught up on what she just heard that she doesn't even realize her father's speaking to her.

"Are you even listening to what I just said?" Tony stops, squinting his eyes at the little girl, Evie shakes her head proudly, "Would it be okay if you repeated it, father?"

"Father? What are we, British? Draco Malfoy?" He jokes, laughing a little until he clears his throat, staring at his daughter sternly, "Once the clock hits 9pm on a school day, you aren't authorized to come in. Try to hijack the system and I'll," He pauses, contemplating on a punishment before he sighs, "Maybe I'll sell all your toys."

Nodding in compliance, Evie agrees, "Deal." She mutters, sitting back down when Tony purses his lips together, "How—? How did you make that nano-bot? Where did you _learn_ to create that nano-bot?" He asks, wanting to clear his questions from last night when the smaller girl shrugs.

"I saw grandpa's blueprints, the ones you threw out and tried doing it. But, I did change a few elements because some of those, like Vibranium, isn't really accessible. So, I did what I could and took titanium." She answers, leaving the two men, her father and Happy, completely mind boggled at what she had just said.

"Are you sure you're six and not fifty?" Tony deadpans, still staring at the little girl as she sticks her tongue out, "I'm six and I'm smarter than you." She chants over and over until they reached home, Rhodey waiting out for them, arms wide open as he lets the small girl jump in his arms.

"Uncle Rhodey!" She grins, clutching his body tighter when he decides to spin her around, he chuckles, "It's so good to see you again, Eves. How was the recital?" He asks, putting her back down as Tony himself jumps on his arms. Evie giggles, laughing at their antics as he drops Tony down.

"It went great, sour patch, now, will you let us go inside and trash Pepper's kitchen or not?" Tony asks, standing up from the ground as Rhodey shakes his head, "Oh, I'm not in this. I just dropped by to give you this."

Again, Evie gets a box, handed by her uncle, it wasn't as small as the one Pepper got her or as big as the lab, but it didn't matter. All that matters is the badge inside, taken from the military, specially made for her.

The rest of the day was spent on attempting at doing cookies, cleaning the kitchen, stopping the house from burning down and Evie having to watch Pepper chew Tony and Happy's asses off, both guiltily holding the fire extinguisher and the burned tray of cookies.

"It's time for bed, come on." He whispers, taking her hand as they pass by Tony's room, where Pepper already was, ready to tell him that he should be responsible, yada, yada, yada.

"Dad, will you tell me a story?" Evie yawns, climbing on her bed as Tony squats in front of her, tapping his chin and pursing his lips in a thin line, as if he was thinking of something when he smiles. "Once upon a time, Evelyn Grimhilde Stark went to bed, the end."

Glaring at him with a scowl, Evie scrunches her nose, pushing her dad's face away as she shakes her head, "That was a _horrible_ story." She says, Tony raises his eyebrows, "Come on, that's your favorite story." He replies, pouting at his daughter, she doesn't respond anymore, just stare at him. So, not able to think of what to tell her anymore, he leans closer, placing a kiss on her forehead, "I love you tons."

"I love you 3000." Evie replies quickly, removing the stray hair on her face as Tony moves back, smiling at her, grinning even, the look of utter disbelief on his face, "Wow." He whispers, staring at her for a few more seconds before standing up, shutting her lamp off and holding on to the door. "3000? That's crazy."

He leaves her room, smiling ever so brightly, but, of course, he was still Tony Stark, so, right at the moment before he closes her door, he smirks, "Go to bed or I'll deny you permission of the lab."

Evie doesn't sleep that night. She just stares at the glass where her arc reactor was encased, already thinking of all the possible things she could create with that.

But, she doesn't use it until she was a year older. Evie was _seven_ when she first used her arc reactor, when she actually used it, hooked it to something so it could power it up.

"Little miss, what are you doing up? You should be in bed." Tony tells his daughter once he enters the lab, his suit a little creased as he checked his watch, eleven-thirty in the evening, it read. Evie doesn't reply.

She takes the wrench, adjusting a little bolt on the mainframe as she blindly takes another screw, tightening it with as her tongue began poking out from the corner of her mouth. "Jarvis, can you give me diagnostics of my daughter? Is she deaf?" Tony jokes from his side of the lab, Evie rolls her eyes, hooking up the wires from her arc reactor to the mainframe.

"Dad, I'm busy. Go bother someone else." She huffs, removing her goggles to take a better look on the thing she just made, hands on her hips as she takes a deep breath, her lips twitch into a smile, "Dad, meet DUM-E's child." She smiles, finally powering it on as the reactor glows.

It wasn't much, really, it was just scraps and an arc reactor. But, from that day on, Tony knew exactly who he's giving his suits to.

Evie was _eight_ when she gave away all her toys, not that it was a big deal or anything, but, she decided she was too old for them. Besides, she's in the lab more than she's playing. The _lab's_ her playground.

"Are ye throwin' out everythin', Eves?" Harry asks over the radio, Evie sighs, putting it up on her mouth, "Yes, Harry. Everything. And, I'm not throwing it, I'm donating." She replies, shutting the box and opening a new one when she hears Harry scoff. "It's the same."

"It isn't Harry. Throwing out means no else can use it when it's completely fine and donating is letting someone else have it. Someone who needs it more than you. Now, learn the difference because I gotta go." She explained, finally turning her radio off as she piles another bunch of toys inside a box, she doesn't see Rhodey on the doorway.

"You're throwing out your War Machine action figure?" He asks, feigning the offended tone in his voice as Evie turns around, looking up at him, smiling nervously as she nods hesitantly, "You-you can have it if you want, Uncle Rhodes. It's just tha-"

"It's okay. Someone else needs it more than you do, I get it." He chuckles, helping her with sorting through some of her toys when Evie stops him, preventing him from putting one of the bears inside a box. "Don't. I mean, I'd like to keep that, please."

He doesn't ask why and she was thankful that he didn't. She just sighs, staring at the small doll in her hands, remembering how she couldn't sleep at night without it or how she couldn't go through a storm without that bear beside her.

It's the only remaining thing that she has from her mother, and, in some ways, it hurts, you know? It hurts that she doesn't even have a photo _with_ her. She has a photo _of_ her, but not _with_ her. Get my point?

She bites her lip, closing the boxes and taping it up before she lets DUM-E Jr. push it around, piling it on top of the boxes Pepper and Tony had packed, all going to donations, funds, whatever that gives them another chance to be used. "Hey, are you donating Mr. Fuzzybear?"

Hearing the ridiculous nickname, Evie looks up, seeing both her dad and mom, well, Pepper but you know, it's nearly the same thing. "Mr. Fuzzybear?" She giggles, questioning the two adults who both shrug, especially Tony who jumps over the ledge of their stairs, missing the couch and landing on the floor with a thud.

Evie winces, scrunching her nose in disgust as she helps her dad up, groaning in pain but still smiling, "I'm fine. Obviously, I didn't think it through, but, I'm fine." He says, sitting on the couch with a lazy and tired smile on his face as Evie hands him Mr. Fuzzybear.

"Do you ever think things through, dad? You gave a six year old a lab, access to weapons and your suits." She smirks, her sass, presumably taken from her father, I mean, where else can she get it from?

Tony leans back on the chair, a little taken aback by what she just said, "Woah, watch your words, little miss." He warns, Pepper just smiles, pulling Evie on her lap, "Was she wrong, though?"

Evie was nine when she tells her father she wanted to be an engineer. Not a businesswoman, not the CEO, even if she was going to be the heir, no, she wanted to be someone who could help the world to be better. 

She wanted to be more than someone who gets handed everything on a silver platter. She wanted to be more than her last name. More than a Stark. She wanted to be someone else, her own person, Evie.

She realized that when she was on her way home from school seeing the faulty mechanisms Malibu had, the graffitied walls of buildings, she sees her dad's company, she sees the compound, her compound, soon enough. She wanted to fix every wrong she sees. 

"You seem awfully quiet tonight, do you want me to call Pepper?" Tony asks when they were having their dinner, he was right, his daughter wasn't really speaking to him or telling him about her day like usual, she was just there, sitting down and playing with her food as she props her elbow on the table, chin on the palm of her hand. "No, dad, it's okay. I was just, uh, you know, thinking."

Tony nods, not wanting to push her more into talking, knowing that forcing your child isn't really the best way to get answers out of them. On Evie's part, though, she wanted to talk, or at least say something but she doesn't want her dad to feel like she wasn't thankful for the Stark name, that she wasn't thankful for the company she will sure as hell get.

But at the same time, this was her dad. This was Anthony Edward Stark we're talking about. He may be the most flamboyant, annoying and sarcastic witty asshole everyone knows but, he's her dad. "Would you get mad at me if I didn't want to run the company?"

Tony furrows his eyebrows, looking at her with a confused stare, "Why would I be mad? I mean, sure, it would be _awesome_ if it's my daughter continuing my legacy," He stops, shaking his head and grinning at her, putting his hand on her shoulders as he finishes, "But you have dreams too. And I don't want to get in the way of that."

Evie doesn't even realize that she was up on her feet, hugging Tony tightly, "Why do you accept things so much?" She asks, tilting her head sideways as the man puckers his lips, shrugging in the process, "I don't like being handed things but I sure like accepting them. Plus, what do you want to be?"

She only cracks him a smile, "I want to be an engineer, dad."

Tony doesn't accept things lightly. But this was his daughter, this was Evie. If anything, he'd do anything in his capabilities just so she'd grow up, far from the way his dad raised him. Far from all the insecurities, all the discouraging words, Evie doesn't need that.

Evie was _ten_ when she saw Natasha again. The moment they visited New York, searching for places to move to, searching for a place to build a new home. Somewhere far from the sun and beaches Malibu has.

"Welcome to Stark Tower, or at least, what will be Stark Tower." Tony says awkwardly as he watches the patch of land, Evie chuckles, shaking her head at her father as she wanders around, looking around the place, hands inside her pockets as she strayed away from her parents.

She really doesn't know where she was going, following the lights of the buildings and all, until she feels a hand on her shoulder, frightening her for a bit until she hears a familiar voice, despite last hearing it years ago.

"Shouldn't you be back there? Your dad's going to send a massive search party around New York if he learns you're lost." Natasha jokes, earning a sigh of relief from the girl, turning around and giving her a smile. A smile that reminds her of the kid she has, just a few buildings down the street.

"Wow, you've grown. Last time I saw you, you were, uh, this tall?" Natasha smiles, putting her hands, assuming Evie's height four years ago, the girl laughs, "It's nice seeing you here," She smiles politely, hesitating to call her, "Auntie Nat," but at the same time, she was confused, last time she saw her, she was in Malibu. "Why are _you_ here?"

Natasha simply chuckles, staring at the building a few streets away, pointing at it, she gets on level with Evie, "You see that black building right there? I, kinda work there. It's the home of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. We go by SHIELD, but you know." She replies, Evie nods.

The two walk back to where Tony and Pepper were, looking around the property still, signing papers, you know, stuff Evie has no intention of knowing. Stuff that she would rather die than do. She hated paperwork.

"I'll see you around, yeah?" Natasha tells the raven haired girl, she nods, smiling at her as the redhead begins to leave, feeling her phone vibrate, knowing who exactly it was. Evie stops her for a while, "Auntie Nat?" She calls, the name a bit foreign to her once more, the spy turns around. "Thank you for walking me back here. I'll see you." She bids, waving goodbye.

Evie was _eleven_ when she created her first suit. Or, at least, a part of it. One of the most important parts, actually. The repulsers. "Holy shit!" She yells, a little too loudly because next thing she knew, Jarvis was giving out a sound of disappointment. She rolls her eyes, "Shut up, you're an AI."

"An AI that knows more than you, Miss Stark. I know most of the things you've done and said in the past few days." He replies, playing footage of the time Harry, Carlos and her did an experiment wrong. Blowing it up and accidentally smashing one of the windows in the neighborhood. She growls.

Evie might be on the young side but hey, she's growing up, she's just hit puberty, let her the hell be. "Jarvis, I won't hesitate to replace you with a new AI if you don't shut up." She says, examining the glove-like piece of metal, smiling, shaking her head, excitedly hooking it up to her arc reactor, attaching it ot her chest and putting the glove on. Again, Jarvis lets out a disappointed sound.

"What is it this time, Jarvis?" She asks, stopping her from doing any cool stuff with the repulser, the AI doesn't respond directly, instead, playing a video in front of her. One from a few years ago. The one where her dad had just become Iron Man.

 _"I've been buzzing you, did you hear the intercom?"_ Pepper's voice can be heard from the distance as Tony adjusts the metal on his arm, Evie scrunches her eyebrows together, watching her father, observing the equipment on his arm. _"Yeah, I thi–– what?"_ He asks, a little out of it, a little distracted. Evie smiles.

 _"Obadiah's upstairs."_ Pepper replies, putting the box down as Tony begins removing the metal from its confinements, moving it with his arm, lifting it. _"Great, great. I'll be up."_ He replies, again, Evie observes as he finally gets it off of the stand it was perched on. _"Okay."_ He breathes out, Pepper furrows her eyebrows visibly _, "I thought you said you were done making weapons."_

 _"It isn't. This is a flight stabilizer. It's completely harmless."_ He responds, lifting it up with the help of his other arm, aiming for the wall as the sound builds up, louder and louder until it blows, flinging him back on the wall, Evie gets a little scared hearing his groan. _"I didn't expect that."_

"Would you like to proceed and try, Miss Stark?" Jarvis asks knowingly, the raven haired girl nods her head, a smirk on her face as she aims for the same wall, "What's life without risk, Jarvis?" She asks, the same sound building up, she looked just like her father. The only difference? Her ass wasn't launched off.

Evie was _twelve_ when she got shot. She got shot and she handled it like a total champ. Like it was just a scrape when she was literally bleeding out of her side.

It was a normal day for her, actually. Just went out with Happy, finished her homework, decided to go to the lab, walk over to Harry's and you know, have her crazy neighbor shoot her on the side while she was crossing the road all because he hated her father. This was normal. Everything was alright, every single thing is fine.

Evie groans, watching the blood seep through her shirt as she stands up, clutching her side and preventing herself from falling down the ground and writhing in pain as she walks back hope, perfectly normal and not even limping for a second. It surprised her she didn't pass out from the pain.

She closes the door behind her, hissing in pain and mumbling a curse when the doorknob hits her side, more blood leaking out of her, she groans in pain. "Evie, honey? Is that you?" She could hear Pepper call out, she bites her lip, frantically walking as fast as she could towards her room and locking the door behind her. Pepper knocks.

"Hey, is everything okay? Weren't you going to Harry's?" She asks, a little concerned for the girl when Evie gets a pair of tweezers, lifting her shirt in front her mirror, "Yeah! Every-everything is fine! I just remembered that I had to do something. You know, take a bullet out of my side." She mumbles the last part, biting on her shirt and taking the bullet out, thankfully, it just bounced off of the ground so it was pretty shallow. But, penetrated her skin nonetheless.

A few tears escape from her eyes as she takes in ragged breaths, putting her shirt over the wound, stopping the bleeding before disinfecting it, wrapping it in bandage when it was all over. 

"Eves? Do ye copy? Where are ye?" Harry asks worriedly over her radio, she closes her eyes, wanting to drown him out but he was incessantly asking her, on and on until she picks up, "I'm fine, Har. I just got caught up in something."

"A bullet perhaps? I fuckin' saw ye out of me window. Are ye okay?" He asks worriedly, although, relief was evident in his voice when Evie replied, chuckling the girl sighs, "It's a scrape. I'm fine."

Evie was _thirteen_ when she first tried her father's suit. When she first felt what it was like being Iron Man. Or at least, how it was inside the suit.

It took her a whole _year_ to convince her dad to let her operate the damn thing, the day came during her birthday. "I wish this was an April Fools joke but, Happy Thirteenth Birthday, honey." Tony sighs, handing her his helmet reluctantly.

She takes it, of course, almost immediately, putting it on and gasping in delight as she sees the HUD, "Happy Birthday, Miss Stark." Jarvis greets her, soon enough, she feels the rest of the suit around her, enveloping her arms, her torso, her legs. She was in the Iron Man suit.

"Jarvis, does this thing have this thing called a parachute?" She asks the AI, flexing her arm and grinning widely at the mechanical sound. "Yes, it does. Would you require my assistance in flying this?" He asks, he doesn't get an answer because next thing they knew, Evie was out in the air.

"No way that I'm letting her fly off like that." Tony says, taking another suit before flying in the same direction she flew at.

Evie yells in joy, going faster, stabilizing herself as she stops, staring at the view of Malibu, her home. Damn, so this was the view her dad was seeing all the time. It was _beautiful_ up here.

She just takes in the view, watching the cars move, the lights turn on, the waves crashing on the rocks below their house. Everything was perfect. "Alright, fun's over, let's go." She hears someone beside her, she turns her head, seeing her father in another suit of his, flying beside her, she chuckles, "I'll actually stop if you manage to catch me, old man." She jokes, boosting herself away, zooming past her father who rushed to catch up to her. "Evie!"

She just laughs, dropping down, yelling in complete happiness as she twists her body, firing at her dad lightly before passing in between an alley, flying up again and losing him. Or, so she thought.

"Evelyn Grimhilde Stark, it's your birthday, I know, but if you don't get your butt down in the next few seconds, you're grounded." Her father says sternly, she sighs, "Okay, dad, whatever you say."

Smirking, she actually powers the suit down, turning it back on and flying away before calling her dad, "I got my butt down! I'm not grounded!"

Tony doesn't try grounding her ever again.

Evie was _fourteen_ when they moved to Stark Tower, in New York, where she got her own floor. It hurts, and she didn't want to move at first because a.) Harry and Carlos lives here and b.) She has a lab here.

She threw a tantrum for the next two days before Tony actually convinced her to pack up. Well, actually, he kinda bribed her by giving the Hook's and De Vil's houses in Manhattan but you know, they're part of Stark Industries too so why the hell not?

"Look, kid, I promise. You'll _love_ it there." He smiles encouragingly, helping her drag the last of her boxes inside the jet, parked casually in front of them. She sighs, shaking her head and dropping the box inside with a frown etched on her face, "Dad, the sun _barely_ exists over there."

"Well, at least you'd experience snow, right?" He tries negotiating, Evie doesn't talk to him, earbuds plugged in, eyes closed, fully asleep until they reach New York.

"I refuse to believe that this was the same patch of land you bought four years ago." Evie mutters under her breath as she stares at the building in front of her, her last name in blue lights on top of the building, Tony smirks, "The top five floors are reserved for research and engineering. The very top, though, we live there."

Evie nods, stepping foot inside and greeting some of the workers with a smile, they enter the elevators, having a tour of each floor, of each room. It took them literal hours before they reach the top.

"Where's my stuff?" Evie asks once they enter the penthouse, Tony just smiles, looking towards Pepper who nudges her head, urging him to go on as he pats Evie's back, leading her towards the elevators. "You don't have a room."

Incredulously, Evie stares at her father, pressing the button, the one hidden under a glass case, she shakes her head. "What do you mean I have no room?" She asks, he doesn't talk, just smiles as the doors open.

"You don't have a room because what you have is a floor." He says, getting off of the elevator, Evie close behind him. "Welcome home, kid. Go crazy."

Evie was _fifteen_ when she comes out to her dad. _Kinda_ comes out. She doesn't really know if she did.

It was one of those nights, thinking about life, thinking about school, watching the New York skyline from her window. You know, the usual.

She hears the doors of the elevator to open, she doesn't look back, the place was secure enough to only let Harry, Carlos, Tony, Rhodey, Happy and Pepper in. If anything, it was just one of them. 

That was proven right when she sees the faint glow of her dad's heart on the glass pane, staring back at her in the dark as the couch dips, he sits beside her. "Are you okay? I heard you didn't go to school today."

She nods her head, biting her lip and fighting the silent urge to scream, to just tell the world that she wanted to disappear. She's been getting that quite lately. Thinking of ways why she shouldn't be here, why her dad would never love her the same way he did if he knew. If he sees what's on her mind.

"Either something is completely wrong or you're about to kill me. You have to tell me what it is." He tries joking, she doesn't laugh. She just sighs, slumping back, sinking deeper on to her couch. "Evie, honey, come on. It's me, you can tell me anything and everything."

"I know. I just don't think you'd understand." She replies, beginning to put her walls up when Tony holds her hand, "Where's my little girl? Last time I remember, you were dancing your butt off for your recital. That Evie tells me everything. Literally everything. Where is s—?"

"Dad I think I'm gay." She says in all but one breath, it was enough to cut him off but not enough for him to hear. He furrows his eyebrows, leaning closer, tapping his ear, "Sorry, didn't catch that."

"Dad, I-I think I like girls." She repeats, her voice beginning to tremble, her hands beginning to sweat. She felt like she would die right there and then as Tony keeps quiet. Not a single word from him as he stares at her with his mouth wide open.

Obviously, it freaks her out until he starts laughing, shaking his head, clapping his hands together, "I like girls too."

Evie was _sixteen_ when she meets the Avengers. When she meets Inferno _and_ kicked her ass.

She watches as those, those _things,_ fly outside, some of them even attaching themselves to her windows, seeing them all fly out from the beam up on their roof. Of all places, it just had to be theirs where literal aliens were coming out of.

She sighs, walking to her kitchen and preparing herself a drink before activating the locks when she hears a muffled voice from behind the elevator, continuously pressing on the buttons before giving up, she doesn't make a single sound.

The doors open and next thing she knew, a masked figure was walking inside, blonde hair and fully armed. She grabs a smoke bomb, detonating in front of the girl, distracting her for a while before Evie sweeps her down, getting her on her ass as she straddles her.

She opens her blade, glaring at the masked figure who was currently clutching her stomach and grunting in pain, clenching her jaw as Evie points the blade right on her neck. "Who are you?"

Blondie chuckles, shaking her head, "I'm a SHIELD Agent. I'm here to evacuate you." She replies, breath still knocked out from her. Evie retrieves the blade, still glaring at her.

The Stark scoffs before getting off of the girl and helping her up, shaking her head as she turns to her slightly, "I don't need anyone to save me." She tells her, removing her hair out of the way while the girl stares at her, a little creepy, to be honest, because she wasn't talking until Evie hears the _most ridiculous_ line she's ever heard in her whole life, "You're eggs." 

She turns to the blonde, maybe a little unable to see what her eyes were doing but then she sees the elevator behind her, remembering her initials engraved on the button. This girl was stupid.

"Idiot." She whispers, proving her point before she takes one of her dad's helmets, completely unaware that the girl was still there if she hadn't turned, "What are you doing?"

The blonde crosses her arms over her chest, walking over to her, the tone in her voice a little on the accusing side as she takes Evie's arm, "I don't know, eggs, trying to save your ass?" Evie shakes her off quickly.

"It's not 'eggs' you moron, it's Evie. Evie Stark." She replies, unashamedly glaring at the blonde, a look full of disdain evident in her eyes as the girl slumps, "Look, it's my duty to save everyone in here, okay? Would you please fucking cooperate with me?"

"I told you, I don't need sa––" She was about to chew her ass of but right before she could, one of the Chitauri crashes through the window, then there were two of them, then three, until seven were surrounding them. Blondie groans, "You were saying?" She asks sarcastically towards her before holding her waist, shooting the aliens as she jumps off of the window, Evie's eyes widen, "HEY!"

It doesn't even bother her that she was yelling on and on while they get closer to the ground, the agent chuckles, somehow, in her crazy mind, enjoying this. 

"Open your damn eyes, it's fun!" She yells, still joking around despite nearing the ground at an alarming rate, Evie shrieks, "Are you crazy?"

"No, I'm flying!" The other girl retorts before opening up her gliders. Finally feeling like they weren't dropping to their deaths anymore, Evie opens an eye, watching the view of New York City as blondie holds her comms. "Stark, where do I take your daughter?"

"Take her to the Helicarrier!" She hears an indistinct male voice answer while the girl who was holding her nods, watching the Chitauri before staring at Evie, this seems bad.

"Look, I appreciate you cooperating with me before but I need you to do something again." She says, loosening her grip around the girl as Evie's eyes widen, heart was racing as her adrenaline bounce off of the charts, hell, this was scarier than the drop. "What are you doing?"

"I need you to let go when I say so, okay?" The blonde tells her, as calm as she could, Evie doesn't know if the girl has lost her goddamn mind but she thinks that she did because next thing she knew, she was thrown up in the air, landing on the Chitauri's flying vehicle before the other girl lands there as well.

They took care of the aliens, dropping their bodies on the ground as Evie leans on the walled edge, catching her breath, staring at the blonde as her curious gay ass begins to kick in. "I didn't really catch your name."

It took the other girl some time before she replies, "It's Inferno."

Evie chuckles, taking a deep breath before trying again, "I meant your real name." She repeats, hoping to know the girl's actual name before they teach Helicarrier, the agent doesn't respond, just opens up one of the mirrored doors of the large flying vehicle before turning to Evie, "I don't give my name out, princess."

That leaves her in a blushing, gay puddle as they reach the main lobby, or, she doesn't know, main living room, inside. She sighs, thinking of another bargain.

"Can you at least show me your face?" She requests, seeing the hook behind her head and trying to unhook it when the blonde takes her hand, shaking her head, "How about I show you my eyes instead, that cool with you?" She asks, waving one of the agents off as she takes the Stark towards the monitors, Evie reluctantly agrees as the girl takes the upper portion of her mask.

The raven haired girl doesn't know how and she doesn't know exactly why but her breath was taken away as she stared at those shining emerald eyes. It seemed familiar, like she's seen it before. But, at the same time, it doesn't.

It was a little awkward, so, the agent clears her throat, "I should go. Alien invasion outside." She says, leaving Evie alone until she finds herself stopping the agent on her tracks, "Thanks for saving me, green eyes."

The agent nods, holding Evie's hand before walking away again, "My pleasure, princess. I'll see you around."

Evie really hopes she does see her around. And she will. Because the next day, she finds herself, knocking on her father's door as he and Pepper discuss the renovations for the building. "Hey, kid, what are you doing up here?" He smiles, Evie doesn't walk closer. She just smiles back at her dad before respnding, 

"I want to be an Avenger." 


	6. пять

"Did–– Did I hear that correctly? You want to be an _Avenger_? _What_?" Tony asks incredulously as he turns to his daughter, jaw dropped slightly to the ground, Pepper just widens her eyes as Evie shrugs, "Yeah. I–– I want to be an Avenger. To be part of your team."

Tony just blinks, rapidly, jaw still dropped to the ground, "I- Honey, are you okay? Are you thinking straight right now?" He asks, a little concerned for his daughter's wellbeing, Evie just chuckles, nodding her head and turning around, returning to the elevator, "Just, the offer would always stand, dad."

A few blocks down, Mal lies on the floor, groaning in pain and clutching her stomach as she glares at Audrey, "You bitch, you told me there were three darned aliens! Not _twenty-three_!" She yells, blaming the brunette for her pain right now, Uma chuckles, clutching her own pained areas as Jane tends to her, "Well, I didn't see the ones down on the ground, okay? I got pretty beat too, you know."

Mal just sighs, grunting in pain as she stands up, ignoring the throbbing on her ankle as she walks outside of the infirmary, searching for Natasha, Steve, Fury, literally anyone else, "Jay, where the hell is Nat?" She asks, stopping the boy on his tracks, he turns to her with a mouthful of chips, shrugging and shaking his head before leaving her alone.

"Fuck's sake." She mumbles, limping towards the elevators when Natasha and Steve finally reach her sight, Mal sighs, grunting in pain when Natasha throws a bag at her, "Where the fuck were you?" She asks, opening the bag and taking a shawarma, biting it off when Steve glares at her, "Language, Mal."

Said girl scoffs as she re-enters the infirmary where her friends were, all wide-eyed at the sight of food. Ben was the first to grab the bag from her, "Hey! Share that." Steve says sternly as the redhead beside him laughs, taking Mal's hand and pulling her out of the infirmary, but not before leaving this; "Listen to the dinosaur!"

The pair began walking back to their room, actually, Natasha was walking and Mal was busy limping, clutching on the spy's jacket as they get inside the elevator, the blonde then turns to her, smacking her with her mask, "Where the hell were you?"

Deflecting another smack from the blonde, Natasha takes the mask, "I was out with the guys. Where did you think we got the shawarma?" She replies, shaking her head at the girl who only rolls her eyes in response, "So, you're all friends now? You and The Avengers?"

"What, are you jealous?" Nat retorts, Mal looks down, guiltily. She knows she shouldn't feel this way because, yeah, Natasha raised her, they're what you call best friends, soulmates, even, but, that doesn't mean she should be jealous that she has other friends. It doesn't work that way.

Raising an eyebrow, Natasha turns her body to the blonde, feeling her heart burst a little as she chuckles, "Oh my gosh, you are." She says, earning a defensive eye roll from the girl, "No, I'm not. It's just weird." She replies, walking off once the elevator doors open, Natasha doesn't speak to her, doesn't force her into talking again.

"Go to sleep, you have school tomorrow." She says sternly, passing by Mal's room, the blonde nods, "Yeah, sure." She mutters, Natasha smiles, "And, hey, you're still my favorite person. You're my little devil. Not even a bunch of gods and heroes can go top that."

Mal falls asleep with a smile on her face, Natasha might be the ruthless Black Widow, she might be a killer, a murderer at some points, but, she was Natasha. She was the only family she's got. And to hear her say that was more than just special.

Back in Stark Tower, Evie sighs, staring at herself in front of the mirror, hissing in pain as she wipes her mouth, the bruise on the corner of her lips, one she got from the aliens. She hated it for two reasons. One was, of all places, it had to be there, and the second one was it hurts, even speaking hurts.

"Are you naked or can I come in?" She hears her dad from the other side of the door, Evie sighs, plastering a smile on her face, "No, dad, you can come in." She replies, letting the man inside her bathroom, furrowed eyebrows and all, a juice pop on his hand, "I remember that you like apple and blueberry juicepops. It's a weird combination but, here." He smiles, handing her the treat as she gratefully takes it, popping it into her mouth as Tony leans on the door.

"Those, stuff, Chitauri, I think is what we call them? I don't know, can't really understand Thor with that accent," He trails off, laughing at himself as Evie shakes her head, a small chuckle leaving her lips, her father stares at her, "They got you good, huh? Does it hurt?" He asks, referring to the bruise on the corner of her lips, she shakes her head. "I've been shot, dad, this was nothing."

Wincing at the memory of Tony discovering his daughter's bullet wound, he ushers her to come over, asking for her consent before lifting her shirt up, thankfully, all she had were bruises, no wounds, no stab, no secret anything. "Okay, so, it's just the lip, then?"

Evie shakes her head in disbelief, moving past her dad and leaving his question unanswered as she gets out of the bathroom, headed straight to her kitchen, shaking her head and ignoring the thoughts inside her head, "You're quiet again, are you going to come out again?"

She shakes her head, "No, dad, it's- I get a bruised lip and you're so worried about me when you're the one who nearly––" She stops, biting her lip and refraining herself from looking at her dad in the eye, he raises an eyebrow, "I what?"

"It's because you almost _died_ and you're worried about a busted lip! Dad, I could've lost you. And I _can't_ lose you. Not you too." She replies, a crack in her voice as she lets out a sob, Tony rushes to her immediately, pulling her in an embrace. Lulling her back to reality, calming her down.

"You won't lose me, honey. You can't. A wormhole can't take me away from you, an alien can't. I love you too much to let you go through that." He whispers, Evie nods, crying herself to sleep. Tony sighs, carrying her over towards her bed, pulling the covers up and stroking her hair before kissing her forehead, he turns her lamp off, smiling, "I love you 3000."  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  


"Oh my _fucking_ god, Natasha, do you ever shut up?" Mal groans, covering her head with a pillow once the music continues to ring, on and on, never stopping, continuously annoying the hell out of her as Steve enters the room, a small smirk on his face, "Wake up, kid."

She just groans louder once she hears the banging of pots and pans overlap the sound of Natasha's stupid music, "Oh my fucking god, Mal, do you ever wake up?" Natasha retorts with a grin as she stands beside Steve, Mal just flips her off, standing up and walking past her, stealing her toast as she heads to the bathroom.

"Miss Stark, it's time to wake up." Jarvis' calm and soothing voice greets Evie, the girl just laughs, coming out of her bathroom as she dries her hair, "Been up an hour ago, Jarvis. I thought you were smart?" She asks, chuckling a little before opening her closet, settling on her favorite jacket.

"Wow, I was just about to yell at you. You're up." Happy says surprisingly, walking towards the girl, a face full of natural make-up, hair up and her red leather jacket standing out in the room. She really looked like someone who could be Tony Stark's daughter. She looks arrogant, looks rich, looks smart and looks damn attractive all at the same time. A total Stark.

"Hey, that's my toast." Steve mutters disappointedly once Ben enters the room, grabbing his toast with jam, "Don't care, fossil. We're going to be late if Mal doesn't get her ass out of that bathroom." Uma replies, leaning on the counter as Natasha shakes her head, "Relax, if anything, we'd get you there using the chopper."

Audrey scoffs, raiding their fridge and stealing one of the juice boxes, also passing one to Jay and Lonnie as Jane paces back and forth, "I can hear you, Uma. And I'm almost done!" Mal replies, letting out muffled grunts as she brush her teeth with one hand and wear her jacket with the other.

She spits out the toothpaste, gargling and removing the remnants of junk inside her mouth before grabbing her bag, stumbling outside the bathroom and seeing their whole gang together. Everyone looked ridiculous. But that was their brand, ridiculous.

"We'll see you guys later, don't miss us too much." She jokes, taking her box of strawberries from the fridge before pulling on Jay's sleeve, the seven of them all getting out of the room, "Look both ways before crossing the street!" Steve reminds them as Mal nods, pressing the buttons of the elevator, smiling at them before it closes.

"Aren't you going to be late?" Pepper asks Evie worriedly as the girl shakes her head, "Maybe, I just wanted to say goodbye to you." She smiles, running towards the woman as she kisses her cheek, taking her cup of coffee in the process. Pepper lets it slide as she sees the girl down it in a gulp.

Tony squints his eyes at her, scrunching his nose and feeling the pain of the scalding hot liquid slide down her throat. He feels it, somehow, but she doesn't. It's weird, really. "Bye, dad. I'll see you later, or maybe not. I'll call you!" She smiles, placing a kiss on his head before running to the elevators, pressing the buttons hurriedly, "You better call, Evelyn!"

Evie just giggles at her dad's reminder, humming a tune on her way down as she greets other staff of the tower with a smile, giving them, "Good morning's," and all, she doesn't run out of smiles, not even when the doors open as she rushes outside, entering the car Happy was in.

"Where to, Evie?" He asks, adjusting the rear view mirror as she smiles, putting on her seatbelt as she sinks deeper on the seat, "Midtown High, Hap. And be quick, I can't be late on the first day." She smiles, answering his question as they start to move.

"Guys, you do know that we could've had Ben ask for a limo, right?" Lonnie pants as they ride their bikes towards the school, Mal nods in agreement, groaning in pain as she pedals faster, staring at her clock, seeing the time pass by them quickly. Way too quickly.

"Why didn't we?" Jane asks, pedaling ahead of Ben, biking beside Uma, the boy shrugs, "Because we're idiots, that's why." Jay answers from the back, shaking his head and struggling to keep his bike straight as he bites into his bagel.

"I'm pretty surprised you chose Midtown, I thought you'd go for Constance Billard School or something." Happy says to the girl as they take a turn, Evie's jaw drop in surprise, a little offended as she scoffs at the man, "And expect me to be a priss? I use my brain not my breasts."

"You really are your father's daughter, you know that?" He chuckles, parking the car in front of the building, the main one in Midtown High, she takes a deep breath. "Try not to get in trouble in there, okay? Call me if you need to be picked up." He smiles, Evie returns it as she leaves the car, shutting the door before turning to the doors. So, this was Midtown High.

"I can't believe we didn't just use that road." Audrey says incredulously as they enter Midtown, their home for the past few years, the same annoying people, same annoying lockers. The good thing, they're two years away from getting away from this shit-hole.

"I'm surprised that no one recognizes us here. We literally saved some of their asses yesterday." Mal whispers to Uma as they open their lockers, earning a nod of approval, "I saved Brad Davis' ass, he was at the bank with his mom." She responds, swinging her bag over her should before her eyes went wide.

"Nine o'clock, pretty girl, a little taller than you, probably your time and probably gay." She whispers, getting Mal to immediately turn to her left, searching for said pretty girl when she sees her. The same girl she just saved yesterday.

"Holy _fuck_ , we have to get out of here, Uma." She mutters, taking the girl's arm before turning them around, entering their classroom as Mal's heart pound relentlessly in her chest, Uma raises an eyebrow. "The hell are you on?" Mal doesn't give her a definite answer.

Back in the hallways, Evie navigates through the crowd, basking in all the attention as she struts towards her locker, unintentionally bumping to the girl opening the one beside her's. She apologizes. "I-I'm so sorry. Are you okay?"

Looking up from the floor, Audrey nods, chuckling a little as she stares at the girl, her face a little familiar. "It's okay. I'm used to it. But, anyways, have we—have we met before?" She asks, closing her locker as she squints her eyes, ever so desperately trying to remember who this was and where she saw her. Evie smiles in response, actually relieved that this girl didn't know her.

"It's Evie. Uh, Evie Stark." She replies, extending her hand out to the girl who gasps, nodding her head, remembering that she saw the girl last night, in the Helicarrier with Mal, making heart eyes at each other. "I'm Audrey. Audrey Mountbatten."

"What happened to her? She seems _paler_ than usual." Jay points out to Lonnie as Mal taps her fingers on her desk, her whole stance was tensed and everything seemed off. Mal was always relaxed, laid back. God, her heart doesn't flutter and stop all because of a pretty girl. Something was wrong with her.

"She saw a pretty girl walk down the hallway and freaked out." Uma replied, Ben furrows his eyebrows, "That seems normal. She's a disaster."

"I don't think Doug the janitor heard you from the other building. Say it louder. " She tells them sarcastically, rolling her eyes in annoyance as her eyes then turn to the door, once more, her heart stops and her jaw clenches, of all the classes Evie Stark had to be in. It had to be the one where she was. Another thing was Audrey just had to be the one she becomes friends with. Of all the people in this god forsaken place, it was Audrey who was with her.

"Class, take your seats and please, meet your new classmate. Everyone, this is Evelyn. Evelyn Grimhilde Stark." Their teacher, Mr. Clarke, introduces. The name, specifically the last name, creates a wave of murmuring around the class as Evie's eyes meet Mal's.

She furrows her eyebrows for a bit, staring at those eyes she swore she saw before. And, okay, maybe it was a bit embarrassing that her teacher had to shake her to get her attention back but, she just can't stop thinking of those damn eyes.

The moment the bell had rung, Mal takes off, not even sparing Evie a glance as she rushes to her next class. Turning to Audrey, Evie points to the direction where Mal just went to, "Audrey, what's wrong with her?" She asks, the brunette chuckles, "That's just Mal. She's a friend, kinda. She's a dork and a disaster. It's normal for her to act like that."

Evie doesn't buy it. There had to be a damn reason why she was acting like that and by the end of the day, she promises herself that she'll get her answer.

Or, maybe, you know, suddenly have plans with new friends like Audrey and Jane, that works too.

"So, Mal, is she— is she always running away like that or should I be concerned?" Evie asks during lunch, sliding her tray as the lunch lady dumps lumpy mashed potatoes on her plate, Jane shrugs.

"Mal's quiet. She's mysterious but she's smart. Maybe a bit of an asshole sometimes, which, some of the girls here have a thing for. She also kicks ass, she hates bullies, something she got from Ste—Stephen?" Jane squeaks the last word, glaring at Audrey who stomped on her foot as Evie watches them suspiciously, "Who's Stephen?" She asks curiously, finding the lumpy food on her plate to be decent, the two stare at each other before Audrey clears her throat. "It's one of our friends. We might be _"up there"_ in the social scale but we hang out with her after school."

"And speak of the devil, there's Mal right there." Audrey mutters, worriedly staring at the girl who was confronting one of the worst people she could. Of all people, the bitch just _had_ to face Zevon. The literal worst in Midtown High.

"Oh, boy, this is about to get bad." Jane whispers, following Audrey as they both stand up, Evie arches an eyebrow before following them, hearing Mal's words clearer as a crowd surrounds her and Zevon. "Who's the guy?"

Jumping slightly at the voice, Audrey flinches, "That's Zevon. He's a bully. And, if you remember, Mal hates bullies. This is bad."

About to ask what the meaning of, "bad," was, they all hear a crashing sound as Mal pins Zevon to the wall, her hands tightening around the front of his shirt as she cracks her neck, clenching her jaw. Zevon whimpers in fear as the blonde squints at him, "I thought we had a deal, Zevon? Wasn't I pretty clear last year?"

Her daunting voice was sending shudders and chills up everyone else's spine, Evie wasn't sure if she just turned gayer or more curious about the girl. She thinks both.

"We— we were clear. I'm sorry. Please, let me go." Zevon whines as Mal smirks, shoving him back on the wall before leaving him alone. The cafeteria remains quiet as she returns to her table, munching on her strawberries like she just didn't threaten Zevon or anything.

"Are you guys done staring or do you want me to do it to you too?" She asks the rest of the crowd who all walk away, mumbling their apologies and leaving her alone as Uma chuckles, seeing Evie staring at Mal.

"Stark's daughter seems interested in you. She won't stop looking at you whenever she has the chance." She teases, earning a choke and gasp from Mal as she turns around, regretting it when Evie smiles and waves at her. Jay laughs, "Uh-oh, here comes her bi panic."

"Of course, it's coming! Look at her! I saved her ass yesterday! If we got close she'll know it was me!" She whispers aggressively to her friends, earning confused looks, most especially from Lonnie, "Can't you just lie and keep a secret?"

"With a face like that do you think I'll be able to keep a secret?" She retorts, her three friends turn to the girl, a little silent for a while before agreeing to her, nodding their heads and humming their responses as the bell rings. Mal just groans in response as she rushes to her locker.

P.E sucked to be fair, when did it not? It's their first fucking day and they had that class. Could her day get any worse?

Unfortunately, it does get worse because next thing Mal knew, Evie was in the middle of the court, on her own as Zevon talks her down.

"What? Are you scared to shoot a ball? Your dad can throw missiles but you can't throw a ball?" One of his cronies, Aziz, Mal thinks what his name was, tells the raven haired girl. Evie just stares at them, unable to respond.

"Hey, we were talking to you, nerd." Anxelin, another member of Zevon's party snaps, an inch away from shoving the girl. Evie waits for an impact, for her to hit the ground but she doesn't.

She doesn't because Mal was there, arms crossed with a clenched jaw, "Mess with me all you fucking want but never, and I repeat, _never_ try to bring others into this." She says sternly as everyone begins to watch again, Evie doesn't know how to react.

And, with his friends around, Zevon feels a little more confident, more aggressive now that he had his posse around. Chuckling, he walks back with his arms up in the air before throwing one of the basketball's at Mal, expecting to throw her off and hit her square in the face when she catches it.

"Fuck off, man." She replies, taking Evie's hand and walking past him, throwing the ball behind her back and hitting him on the crotch. She didn't train in SHIELD for nothing.

Honestly, Evie had no idea how to feel when Mal sits her down on the bleachers, not muttering a single word to her. "Thanks for saving my ass right there, Mal."

Mal hums, nodding her head and tying her shoelaces before walking away, hearing the bell in the distance. Because she's a stubborn ass, Evie follows her, right to the gates where Mal goes to her bike, "So, you know my name. That doesn't mean you have to follow me."

A bit rude but she was tired, Evie understands that, "I know. It's just, thanks." She repeats, leaning on the wall as Mal nods, stopping when a car pulls over in front of them, Mal's eyes widen.

Alarm bells were ringing inside her head as Natasha lowers the window, staring straight at her younger sister, "Any one of you know where hell is? I'm here to pick up Satan."

Rolling her eyes, Mal moves closer to the car, putting her bike at the back as Evie watches them, a little confused that her Aunt was with the blonde. "Funny. Anyways, uh, Evie, I have to go. See you 'round." Mal replies coolly to the raven haired girl before leaving her alone.

Evie stands there, still a little confused as she goes back inside, taking her bag and calling Happy, surprised to see him waiting at the lot with a big smile on his face. "You okay there, Eves?"

She nods, smiling a little, remembering Mal's first words to her today. "Yeah."

"So, looks like you and Stark's daughter, huh?" Natasha jokes, earning a groan from Mal. But, despite that, her heart begins to pound in her chest.

They might be on two different roads in two different cars right now but one thing was for sure.

For some random reason, they can't stop smiling at the thought of each other.


	7. шесть

"Oh, there you are." Uma says tiredly as she enters the facility, already heading straight to the fridge, the common one, as Mal rolls her eyes, already doing paperwork as she bites on the cap of her pen, her glasses perched on her nose. "I texted you, not my fault you didn't see it."

"Woah, cranky pants, we saw you get out of the gym with Stark's daughter, just wanted to make sure you didn't kill her." She chuckles, taking the carton of milk and pouring the liquid inside a glass, Mal growls, "If you don't shut up about her, _I'll_ _kill_ _you_."

"Woah, nobody's killing anyone." A very worried and concerned Steve says as he gets in between the two girls, creating a space between them before leaning on the counter, "How was school today? Mal?" Said girl just groans, completely annoyed by the people she was surrounded with currently.

"School was fine, Uma's just being a, uh, fuck it, she's being an asshole." She replies, beginning to scribble on the papers she had which Jay takes, re-reading each sentence again and again until he was confused. "What the hell is this?"

"Bruce gave it to me. I need extra money, so, I agreed to mark his papers, put on ideas." She replies, stealing it back from him as she jots down her notes, Natasha raises an eyebrow as Clint enters, "Bruce is here?" She asks, a little surprised as Clint nods, "Just saw him on the research area."

"So, Mal, you and Stark's daughter, huh?" Mal could only flip Clint off as she lets out a huff, taking her papers with her and excusing herself away from the stupid people she calls her friends. The people she calls her family.

"Assholes. I hate you guys so fucking much." She mumbles, locking herself inside her room as she stares outside her window, smiling a little as she sees the letter, "A," hanging, shining brightly on Stark Tower.

Inside said Tower, Evie enters it with a dazed stride, ignoring every smile, every nod, every greeting as she enters the elevator, a little out of it while the contraption goes up, humming a random tune until the door opens to the top floor.

"Miss Stark, welcome home. How was school today?" The polite and welcoming voice of Jarvis asks her, she just shakes her head, smiling a little, "It was good. For a first day, you know, it was nice." She recalls, rememberint the faint smile on Mal's face as she drops her stuff, "Hey, Jarvis? Where's dad? Pepper?" She asks, expecting the AI to answer when the elevator dings, causing her to turn around and face it, seeing Tony there with a bright smile as he enters.

"Welcome home, honey. I'd like to ask about your day but we have a dinner to prepare." He replies worriedly, frantically walking over to the kitchen with bags as Pepper follows him, already taking the apron which was hanging on one of the cabinets, Evie was just confused. "What am I supposed to do?"

"Tony's on chopping duty, Happy, where are you?" Pepper calls out as Happy comes in, in a whole different outfit than what he usually wore, Evie begins to laugh, "Oh my god. What's happening?" She snorts, about to leave the room when Tony pulls her back, "Uh-uh, you're baking. You're on dessert duty."

"Dad, I can't cook for shit." She replies, putting her hands on her hips as the adults all let out collective sounds of displeasure, "Language!" They all shout, Evie doesn't complain anymore, just throw her jacket out as she gets to the counter.

"Hey, nerd, you're not done yet?" Natasha asks as she piles on top of the blonde, sitting on her back as Mal grunts in discomfort, "Hey, dumbass, will you get off of my back?" She retorts, desperately trying to shove Natasha off when the redhead just stays there, putting in more weight so Mal wouldn't budge.

Groaning, Mal tries to turn, facing her mentor and smiling sarcastically, "What do you want? Did you set fire to the kitchen again?" She asks, peeking over the redhead's shoulder when the woman gets off of her, "You know, if you weren't here, I'd probably quiet, you know? Not fun." She tells the blonde, Mal chuckles, "Oh, so you're fun now? Who lied to you?"

"Shut up. Besides, that's a compliment." She replies, standing up and heading to the door when Mal beats her to it, shutting it with her stupid technology that she's created with her somewhat smart brain, "Stay. I could use some company."

"And watch you grade papers? Hell no. Fury's holding a shooting contest." Nat smirks, Mal doesn't even have to be told twice, already abandoning the papers as she skids down the halls, in nothing but Iron Man pajamas and Hulk socks.

"I still don't understand what we're doing, will anyone fill me in?" Evie mutters quietly as Rhodey too joins in on their little dinner fiasco, Tony sighs, crossing his arms as he purses his lips together, "We're having dinner with someone we like you to meet."

"Dad, wha–– oh my god, are you, are you marrying me off to someone?" She asks incredulously, dropping the washcloth she held as her jaw drops, staring at her father accusingly while Pepper furrows her eyebrows, "What? Tony, is this true?"

"What?" Tony asks, furrowing his own eyebrows as he stares at his daughter and girlfriend, "You're marrying Evie off? That's a low, even for you." Rhodey murmurs, clapping a hand on Tony's shoulder as the man stares at them confused, "I'm not marrying her off!"

"You're not?" Evie asks, a little relieved and a little embarrassed for her thoughts when Tony nods, "We're only having dinner with a business partner. Or, at least, his parents are our partner. He needs friends." He mumbles, finally clarifying everything as they all kept quiet.

Quiet until Evie begins to laugh, at first it was stifled until she couldn't help it, laughing out loud that she snorts, soon enough, they were all laughing, not really sure of what was happening. They were crazy. And honestly, if this was actually crazy, Evie would like to stay like this.

"Wow, for the first time, Natasha Romanoff didn't lie to me." Mal chuckles as she stares at the weaponry in front of her, eyes dazzling with amazement and excitement as she picks up a revolver, "Alright, who wants their asses kicked?"

While Mal and Audrey begin to bicker, guns on their hands as they trash talk each other, Steve walks over to Nat, looking at Mal warily before leaning on the wall with the spy, "So, have you told her?"

Removing her gaze from the blonde, Natasha shakes her head, her lips formed into a thin line as she turns to the Super Soldier, "I tried, earlier. Timing doesn't seem right."

"Well you have to tell her. Maybe not now but you have to, soon." He replies, sighing as he hears Mal curse the hell out of Audrey.

"Hey, Nat! Look! I got four in a row!" Mal grins excitedly as she takes the attention of the redhead, Nat chuckles, taking a gun from the arsenal as she stands beside the blonde, "I'll kick your ass in no time."

"Evie, I want you to meet Chad Charming. Chad, this is my daughter, Evie." Tony introduces once Evie was out of the elevator, fresh new clothes, her black shiny hair let down as it flows perfectly on her shoulders. She stares at the boy, smiling, taking his hand and shaking it as he takes it and places a kiss on the back of his hand.

"Oh, don't get too charming, Charming." Her father mumbles, sending Chad a look that was enough to send him back on his chair.

To be fair, he was quite attractive. A strong jaw, a great smile that reaches his brown eyes. His hair was curly, a bit of a mane but it works. He really was living up to his name. With the dazzling smile and those looks, he was indeed charming.

"It's nice to meet you, Evie. I've seen you in school earlier, I actually saw you hanging out with Audrey Mountbatten." He chuckles nervously, taking the fork from the table and pointing at his food, Evie raises an eyebrow, "Really? It's a shame I didn't see you earlier."

"Well, I was pushed to the back, I didn't really like the spotlight that much. Plus, I've been meaning to ask, how does it feel being saved by Mal Moors?" He asks, at that question, Tony begins to choke on his meal, "What? Saved from what?"

Evie sends a glare towards the boy, it doesn't even matter if they just met, she steps on his foot, leading him to clear his throat and prevent Tony from having a panic attack. "We, uh, we were playing some dodgeball for our Physical Education earlier and Mal Moors, she, uh, helped Evie out since they're on the same team."

"Is that true, Evie?" Pepper asks, turning to the raven haired girl who nods, "Yes. It was really surprising that she's helped me. She's a quiet girl." She responds, sending one more look towards the boy before returning to her dinner. Speaking of Mal, the Stark heir begins to wonder what she could be doing right now.

"Alright, you bastards, it's dinner time." Fury announces as he enters the room, all in his black long ass coat with a turtleneck and eye-patch glory. Uma nods, "I'll see you guys tomorrow." She says, about to leave when her father stops her, "Where are you going?"

"You said it's dinner time. Aren't we supposed to be going home?" She asks, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion as Fury sighs, putting his hands on her shoulders, "We're having dinner with these idiots we call our friends."

"Ew, what? I have to see Jay pile up shit in his mouth?" She whines, turning to her friends and stomping her foot as Jay stares at her, a little offended, a little joyful about it. Nick sighs, "Yes."

"So, I heard we have two new recruits tomorrow, is that true?" Audrey asks as she takes a seat on the table, grabbing the first plate she could get as the rest take their own seats. Mal was quiet, and so were Steve and Natasha. It was kinda weird.

"Hey, Moors, why are you quiet, kid?" Clint asks as he hands her the box of Chinese food they were having for dinner, she shrugs, smiling slightly, "It's nothing. Just, thinking." She replies honestly, because, well, she was thinking. And usually, she could like, just stop thinking but this was different.

She can't just, you know, _stop_. And it's bothering her with every second that's passing because, usually, she doesn't even think of others. She thinks of herself, the sandwich she ate in the morning, ways to kick Steve's ass during training. But never, and when she means never, she's literally never thought of someone else. Let alone a girl she just met recently.

But, there was something about her. There was something about Evie Stark's eyes, or maybe her smile. Mal doesn't really know. There's just something about her, drawing her in, enchanting her with every smile, every stare. "Hey, Mal? Are you okay? Are you still with us?"

Looking up from her barely eaten food, she nods, "Yeah, just thinking." She chuckles nervously, shoving a spoonful of fried rice in her mouth as Lonnie shakes her head, "Thinking about the girl we were talking about, perhaps?"

Confused, Mal arches an eyebrows until Jane sighs, "You know, Evie. We were talking about her. Fury was asking if you've met her." She tells the blonde, Mal nods, a little too eagerly. "Well, yeah. I met her. Surprisingly, she isn't like her dad. She's cool too, I think? She's also very pre–– I'm saying too much, am I?" She rambles, stopping immediately as her family laughs at her.

"Dessert will be ready in half an hour. For the meantime, Chad, why don't we talk about business?" Pepper smiles as she re-enters the dining area, the blonde smiles, nodding his head and sparing Evie one more glance, smiling at her apologetically before leaving with her parents.

Evie finds that as her cue to get some alone time, away from all the craziness her family had. Leaving Rhodey alone on the table as he scrolls through his phone, she enters the elevators, frantically pressing the button to her floor, sighing in relief when the contraption begins to move.

Honestly, that dinner had been the worst thing to ever happen to her so far. She can handle the talk on technology, but once the profits and percentages came, she was out of it. Just sending looks between her and Rhodey to pass time.

The moment she enters her floor, she immediately removes her jacket, removing her heels as well as she jumps on the couch, shrieking, yelping in surprise when her relieved sigh got accomodated with a groan.

"Do ye even fuckin' look at where yer goin'?" Harry Hook groans in pain as Evie gets off of him, helping him up as he cradles his back, sighing in relief when he finally sits upright on the couch, his best friend begins to apologize, repeatedly. "Damn, Harry, are you okay?"

Laughing, Harry nods, taking her hands and helping her up, sitting her down beside him, "Yer as light as a bag of grapes, love. Ah'm fine." He smiles, his devilish charms a match to the boy just a floor above them. That's when Evie begins to realize something, hitting him repeatedly until he was on the floor, a confused and groaning mess. "Where the hell were you today, you bitch? You weren't at homeroom, you weren't at any of the classes!"

Harry covers his face, shielding it away from all the hits Evie was landing on him with the pillow, "Relax! Ah woke up late. Me dad took me car, Harriet and CJ took the other cars." He responds, taking the pillow Evie was hitting him with and pulling her down on the floor with him, "You idiot." She mutters, straddling his waist and about to suffocate him with the pillow when he throws her back to the couch.

"Ah promise, ah'll make it up to ye." He smiles, now running away from her as he opens the fridge, cracking open a can of soda as Evie chuckles, taking it from him and glugging it down without hesitation, wiping the remnants of it from her chin, Harry snorts, "Yer disgustin'." He smiles, leaning on the counter and looking down at her as she stares up at him, smiling, running her hand through her hair as her Scottish best friend clears his throat.

"So, a've heard that yer view from the balcony is pretty cool." He says, offering a hand to the raven haired girl, she doesn't take it, rolling her eyes and opening the doors towards her balcony, already staring at the New York skyline as the wind breezes past them. Harry removes his jacket, putting it on her shoulders as he too leans on the railings.

"It's beautiful. I mean, Malibu was nice, we grew up there. But, New York's pretty cool too." She mutters, eyes never leaving the view of Manhattan as Harry nods, placing his hands over hers, "Not as beautiful as ye but I'll agree. It is beautiful." He smiles, sending a wink towards his best friend as she turns to him, raising an eyebrow, "Are you flirting with me, you hetero?"

She doesn't get a definite answer because next thing she knew, Harry was pulling her closer, hands on her waist as he places his lips on hers, keeping her quiet as she stays there, frozen, petrified. If all the words that would mean shock and confusion were a person, it would be her.

She doesn't kiss back, well, at first, at least. Her best friend was kissing her, she was a lesbian, it was fucking weird, okay? But, somehow, she finds herself kissing him back after a few seconds until he pulls away, wiping his mouth.

"Pan but _definitely_ not into ye." He mutters, scrunching his face together as Evie gasps, slapping his arm repeatedly, once more harassing him as he laughs, grabbing her wrists and stopping her from any more hits. "You're a bitch! A million ways to come out to me and _this_ is your stupid way?" She asks, laughing at him as he chuckles, letting her go, giving her the chance to lean on his chest, hugging him from the waist.

"Ye aren't mad at me, then? Yer not pissed? Weirded out or anythin'?" He asks worriedly, pulling away from her, his eyes swimming in fear, guilt, worry. His worst fears of losing his best friend all coming together, Evie doesn't reply at first, "If you think a kiss and you being pan would ever make me hate you, then you're wrong. Because I love you, you're my best friend, Harry. I don't want to lose you."

"You may not lose him but I may injure him!" They hear a voice from inside yell, the two widen their eyes, turning to the source, which was too late since Tony was already charging at Harry, his protective side beginning to show itself as the two gasp, "Mr. Stark, ah'm _so sorry_ for this, aye?" He says before waving his jacket, creating a barrier in between them, sort of like a shield.

As expected, Tony stumbles back, falling on the floor as Harry wears his jacket, helping the man up while Evie closes the balcony, preventing her dad from throwing Harry out and preventing Harry to launch her dad out. "I trusted you around my daughter, young man! And I see you here, kissing her! My daughter is a lesbian and I do no––" Tony begins to ramble when Evie stops him, cutting him off entirely.

"Dad, Harry and I aren't together or anything. He just came out to me." She tries, uh, negotiating (?) of some sort, which, ultimately calms Tony down as he crosses his arms, "So you're not hitting on my daughter?" He asks, pointing to the Scott when he shakes his head, "This isn't your first kiss, right?" He asks, this time, the question was directed to his daughter, "No. This was my second kiss with him."

"What?!" Tony exclaims, jumping a little at the new information as he bites on his hand, frowning at the two, "We were each other's first kiss, Mr. Stark. Ah thought Evie would've told ye about it." Harry says, a little confused as well, "I told Pepper, you dingus."

Let's just say that their night was pretty eventful to say the least. _Very_ eventful.

"Wake up, Mal, time for school." Natasha whispers softly as she shakes the blonde awake, no unnecessary music, no banging of pots and pans, no Steve in the room. It was just Nat, waking Mal up like a normal person.

"That was the _nicest_ way you ever did to wake me up." Mal mumbles groggily, standing up and walking past the redhead as she enters the bathroom, preparing herself for another day. Another day to deal with Evie Stark.

Gillian Luke Legume walks inside the long halls of Midtown High, navigating his way through jocks, lockers, more confusing hallways until he bumps into something. Or, _someone._

Showing up a little earlier than everyone else, Ben huffs, cradling his arm as he looks away from his phone, seeing the reason why his arm was hurting anyways. A blonde, the same height as his was wearing a shy smile, scratching the back of his neck as he begins apologizing.

"Man, I—I'm so, _so_ sorry. I was searching for my locker and everyone else seems like a jerk and I didn't see y—" Laughing, Ben waves him off, extending his hand as he smiles at the stranger, "It's fine. I know, I've been there. But, other than that, I'm Ben."

"I'm Gillian. You can call me Gil. So far, you've been the nicest person to me. Thanks."

If Ben only knew how much that introduction would become so much more.

"Hi, Mal." Evie greets the blonde once she spots her, just a few steps away from her locker. The agent doesn't talk, just groan silently and praying that Evie and her tall, kinda cute and handsome friend would go away. "Hey, she's talkin' to ye."

"Evie. What do you want?" Mal asks, forcing a smile and putting on her most polite voice, the raven haired girl smiles, "I just wanted to ask you something. And, well give you something." She replies, Mal begins to listen, well, at least tries to listen as she sees a commotion from behind the goddess, I mean, girl. "Hold that thought, would you?"

Walking past the girl, she takes herself to where another batch of bullies, Flash and his gang were. Tormenting a kid, maybe their age, maybe a year below. He had freckles across his cheeks, his curly hair up in a bun as Flash shoves him down the ground.

Or at least, he tries to. Because at the next second, Mal was twisting his arm at a painful angle, "Hey, Flash. How was summer? Did you forget about what I did to bullies?" She asks, twisting his arm further until he begins to yell in pain, Harry winces from his spot.

"Ye want to be friends with 'er? She's a maniac!" He whispers aggressively to Evie, she just scoffs, "She's nice. She protects people from bullies."

"Stop! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Flash apologizes, enough for Mal to let his arm go before running away, as far as he could get away from the blonde. Said blonde then turns around, seeing the kid they were just bullying, cowering in fear as she approaches him. "Hey, I'm not hurting you. Come on."

The boy hesitates to take her hand, staring at it nervously before taking it, jumping up on his feet as he swings his bag over his shoulder, "Thanks. For saving me."

"Yeah, I save everyone, don't act special." She mutters, already annoyed that her morning was already starting like this. Plus, she had Evie waiting on her, then this kid.

"Oh my god. You're Harry Hook." Said kid gasps as Mal furrows her eyebrows, "Uh no, I'm Mal Moors." She tells him, that's when she hears both a giggle and chuckle from behind. "Ah think he meant me. Ah am Harry Hook. And I believe yer Carlos de Vil."

"So, about those questions, why was Natasha Romanoff picking you up from school?" Evie finally asks the blonde, grabbing her attention pretty quickly. At this time in the morning, Mal can't lie plus, Evie Stark was too pretty to lie to and— yeah, there literally was no other way out except be a bitch.

"Because she was. Does that answer your question?" She replies, starting to walk away when the raven haired girl follows her, "I'm not an idiot. Why was she? Come on, she's my aunt, I just want to know."

"Of course you have to. You and your dad are _very_ nosy." Mal chuckles, not even a little bit regretful for being a bitch, taking her sear inside their homeroom where their friends were, a little surprised to see the two. Evie gasps, taking the seat beside her.

"Oh, is that so? Ever since I came here you were a bitch to me." Evie replies, shaking her head and earning a choke from Audrey as Mal growls, whipping her head to the side as she glares at the beau— at the girl. The raven haired girl.

"Because you've been on my ass since yesterday!" She lies, ignoring the little voice in her head, telling her to fuck off and just stay quiet when Evie lets out a breath, "I didn't ask you to save me yesterday."

That ought to shut them both up, both trembling in anger and annoyance.

If there was one thing they got from each other that day, it was they hated each other. They made that clear when they were headed home.

"Hey, Stark, just a reminder in case you forget; I hate you and you're an asshole!"

Mal actually doesn't. In fact, she wants to go scream in her pillow and apologize. Evie wasn't an asshole, she was.

"Don't worry, I won't forget. But maybe _you_ will! Don't worry, I'll send you an email later to remind you how much of a bitch you are."

That was a lie. Evie didn't send her an email and she just contemplated whether or not to apologize. Mal wasn't a bitch. She was.

They could lie and tell themselves they hate each other for the next few days or even week, but both of them know, deep down in themselves, that they don't.


	8. Семь

Chad grunts as he hits the floor, wincing in pain and clutching his arm as Natasha stands over him, her face blank and expressionless. Unimpressed by the boy in front of her, "I thought you were trained by the Navy SEAL?" She asks, helping him up and throwing him a towel, he scoffs.

"Turns out, you're tougher than them." He replies, chugging down the bottle of water, wiping his sweat away as Natasha chuckles, shaking her head and kicking the vending machine, enough to get her a free drink. It was something Mal taught her, which was weird considering she was the same girl who climbed inside a vending machine but besides that, she stares at Chad, "So, you've met Tony, how's the Avengers thing with him?"

"He said his daughter wanted to join. Turns out, she's kinda the brains behind some of his suits." He replies, giving the redhead the needed information, she hums, "So, did he allow her? We could use more brains." She replies, looking away from the boy when she spots Ben, with a visitor, "Don't know. But he seems interested in having her on the team."

"Hi, are we interrupting something?" He asks, his voice a little muffled by the apple he was eating, Nat furrows her eyebrows, "No, not really. Who's your friend? Hi, I'm Natasha Romanoff, nice to meet you."

Ben nods, turning to Gil as he offers his hand out, holding the strap of his bag as he shakes Romanoff's hand, "Gil. Gil Legume." He smiles, clearing his throat awkwardly, "Ben, Gil, this is Chad. He's a new member of our team."

"Woah, why are my classmates in here?" Another voice joins in, new sets of footsteps heard from the distance as Mal enters the gym, putting her towel over her shoulder as she place her hands on her hips, staring at both Chad, which was the guy she gave gum to earlier in History, also the guy she thought she had a crush on until she realized she's more into girls and then there was Gil, the other guy she had to talk to so she could get gum, also the same guy who gave out muffins earlier.

"You know them?" Nat asks as she stands up, crossing her arms over her chest as Uma nods, squinting her eyes at the two, "That's Charming right there, he's in my Calculus class, then there's vegetable." She says, the latter parted pointed at Gil, earning confused looks from everyone with the exception of Audrey, Mal and Natasha.

"Where did you get _vegetable_ from Gil?" Jane mutters, asking her friend in confusion as she walks towards Gil, Lonnie doing the same to Chad as they both scan them, pulling on their ears and letting their technology do the rest of the work as they both jump in surprise. "Legume is French for vegetable. Thought that of all people, you'd be the one to know."

"What even are they doing here?" Jay asks, leaning on the boxing ring as he prepares his gloves, "Well, I just talked to Fury, Gil's here to become Bruce's assistant." Ben supplies, hands inside his pockets as Mal turns to Chad this time, Natasha shrugs, "Chad's always been part of SHIELD. His parents are supplying us for years and this time, he decided to join in on our team."

"Alright, let's see what he could do." Mal smirks, jumping on the ring as Chad looks at her, a little confused, "What who could do?" He asks, a little afraid by the blonde when thankfully, Steve Rogers comes to the rescue, like he always does. "Me. I just saw Natasha kick Chad, literally. I don't think he needs more damage."

"Oh, what if I kick your ass, old man?" Mal taunts, putting her hair up in a ponytail as Steve raises an eyebrow, hitting a blow on the blonde to which she takes, she might be surprised at first, not really expecting his first hit, but she sure was on the second.

At that moment, the aura changed, the tension got thicker and the temperature dropped, somehow. No one really knows why it dropped, it just did. "That's it?" Mal asks, dodging Steve's hook, taking his arm and twisting it, enough for him to grunt in pain but not to give up. "I can do this all day, kid."

Mal half turned and half stepped back, toward the corner of the ring, a fluid quarter circle, shoulders and all, and like she knew he would, Steve moved toward her, faster than she was moving, off-script and involuntary, ready to grab her.

Mal kept it going long enough to let their momentum establish, and then she whipped back through the reverse quarter circle toward him, by which time she was moving just as fast as he were, one hundred and fourteen pounds about to collide head-on with two hundred and twenty, Steve was quick to side step, actually grabbing her this time.

"Bad move, Cap." She pants, throwing her legs around his shoulders, elbowing his head until he was caught off-guard, enough time for her to throw herself back and send him down on the floor, "This isn't over, kid."

That was right because next thing she knew, Jay was charging towards her, a punch ready to hit her which she rolls away from, kicking her legs up and jumping back on the ring as she goes head on, taking Jay by his stomach and pinning him on the side of the ring, swinging her leg under his, dropping him down on the ground.

The blonde thought it was all over until she feels arms wrapped around her, familiar ones that she knew so well, "Audrey, for fuck's sake you really thought I'd let you beat my ass?" She asks, dropping down on her back as Audrey grunts, sliding off of her quick enough that she falls on her own.

Mal groans in pain, growling towards the brunette as Audrey straddles her waist, putting her elbow on Mal's neck to prevent her from breathing, Mal begins to choke. "H-Hey! T-This is against the ru-rules!" She chokes out, doing her best to get the brunette off.

Audrey does get off but not because Mal did it successfully, but because Natasha takes her place, helping Mal up and throwing her back on her feet as she lands a punch on her nose, Mal groans, clutching it, watching the blood run out as Natasha tilts her head. "Dude! That hurts!"

"You can't say 'dude that hurts!' in the middle of a fight!" Nat retorts, ducking the blonde's swing before said blonde throws her own punch, hitting Nat square in the jaw, letting her fall back a little as she clenches it. 

The gym becomes a battlefield, a place where peace wasn't actually an option. Mal falls back when Natasha whips out her Widow Bites, electrocuting her, stopping her momentarily before she gasps, actually _yelling_ while shocks are sent through her whole body, stopping her, worried glances were sent around the room.

"Nat, make it stop." Jane panics, getting away from the ring and opening up her phone, scanning the Widow Bites as Nat shakes her head, crossing her arms and stopping her, they were confused why when Mal laughs, throwing the Bites away as she sets fire to her wrists.

"Is _this_ normal?" Chad mutters, scared for his life as he backs away, Gil nods, asking the same thing silently as Lonnie scrunches her nose, "Once a month, yeah. We're pretty much used to it." She replies nonchalantly, glaring at Mal when she nearly set her on fire.

Electricity crashes into fire, the crackling sound enough to frighten each and every one of them, including Steve who doesn't even try to stop them, too afraid that he'll be more than defrosted if he intervenes.

"Romanoff, Moors, cut it off." A deep and familiar voice booms around, enough to send them to stop as they stare at the man himself, Mr. Secretary, Ben's uncle, the reason why he even was allowed to lurk around the SHIELD offices.

"Uncle, I- I didn't expect to see you here today. Ho–– How's Washington?" Ben asks, gulping and ushering his uncle outside, "I'm doing great. How is New York? Your parents?" He smiles, patting his nephew's back as they go along the halls, Ben chuckles, "New York, in general, it's fine, sir. Parents? I could call them right now, arrange a dinner, perhaps?" He asks, a little hopeful that his uncle won't lash out on him. Hope doesn't save him.

"I came down here to tell you that your imbecile group of friends should know nothing about HYDRA. Is that understood, Benjamin?" Alexander asks as he pins Ben to the wall, choking him, knocking out the air off of him as he nods, grabbing the man's wrist to prevent his hands to dig deeper, "Yes, sir."

While his life might be put in danger, but there's no way in hell that Ben won't be telling his friends. Maybe not now, maybe soon, but he will. And he'll find a way to get HYDRA off of SHIELD, no matter what it takes.

"Hey, kid, how are you?" Tony asks his daughter once he enters her room, seeing her all cooped up, sheets drawn up until her chin, lights were dimmed and bags of chips were lined up beside her while the TV plays Friends, again and again. He raises an eyebrow.

"Did you just went through a breakup that I had no idea about?" He asks, crossing his arms and blinking rapidly while Evie turns her head towards him, shaking her head, "No, dad, just bored and tired. My friends are busy, today, they're decathlon team members and I'm not part of it, I don't want to interrupt them just to chat."

"Well, you and I can chat. Come on, tell me about the girl crushes you have right now. Did you kiss someone in the broom closet? Spill the coffee." He says eagerly, just wanting his daughter to bond with him again, Evie furrows her eyebrows, snorting as she begins to burst out laughing, "What?"

"You know, the things you kids say, spill the coffee." He replies, shrugging and smiling at his daughter, "Dad, it's spill the tea, not coffee. But, coffee does sound good right now." She grins, getting up from her bed and pulling Tony up on his feet, leading him to the kitchen where he sits down on the bar stool, leaning on the bar as he stares at his daughter, "You know, I've been thinking about the thing you said to me."

Evie turns, handing her dad the cup of coffee, "Thanks." He mumbles, taking the first sip as Evie leans on the counter, "What thing? Was it about the go on my nanotech?" She asks, a little confused when Tony scrunches his nose together, shaking his head, "It's about the thing you told me, maybe a week or two ago,"

"And that thing would be?" Evie eggs him on, fully unaware of the mental battle that her father was facing inside his mind right now. Hell, if you could take a look inside his brain, it's a full blown war-zone in there, contemplating, deciding whether or not to tell her. If it was even _worth_ to tell her.

"Remember when you said that you wanted to be an Avenger?" He asks, finally relieved that the cat is out of the bag, a new wave of anxiety creeping in when he realized what her answer would be. "Yeah, I do. What about it?"

Tony clicks his tongue, tapping his fingers on the table before sighing, "Before I go on, would you mind telling me _why_ you want to be an Avenger?" He asks, crossing his arms as Evie hums, placing her mug down as she stood, literally on her toes, "Because I know I _could_ help, you know? I know that there's so much more. The day those aliens came I didn't want to be part of anything you did but when this agent saved me, I don't know, I just wanted to help people, just like her. Approximately, we're the same age. If she's saving New York, maybe I could too. Maybe the world, even."

Her father rolls his eyes at first, until he furrows his eyebrows, "Which agent saved you, again?" He asks, opening his phone from under the table as Evie begins to think, because for the love of god, all she can remember was green eyes.

"I think it was something about hell, or something." She replies, unsure of the agent's name while her dad begins to research, swiping through his phone, "Inferno? Was that it?" He asks, expanding on Mal's file, away from Evie's prying eyes.

"Yes, dad." She replies, finishing her cup of coffee when Tony stands, "Not that I recruit the new Avengers but I'll set you up with Inferno in a day or two, get ready."   
  
  
  


"Mal, you look absolutely miserable." Audrey greets her friend once she enters the school bus, ditching their friends who had their parents drop them off. Nat, Clint or Steve would've liked driving Mal but they said they were, "too busy," and, "doing something."

"Why wouldn't I be? I'm about to see Evie again." She replies with a huff, putting up an ice pack on her nose, still swelling from the punch Steve and Natasha blew. Audrey arches an eyebrow, leaning further back on her seat as she stares at Mal, "What is it about you and Evie? I remember the first day, you were so,"

At that pause, she begins to think of the right word, something to perfectly describe Mal and Evie's situation. It wasn't infatuated or mesmerized. It was more like, "You were so _enchanted_ by her or something. What happened?"

"She began to annoy the hell out of me, that's what." Mal replies, although, it didn't sit right with her, you know? Calling Evie annoying was one thing but actually telling it to someone else, it was odd.

"Speaking of Evie, there she is right now and I have to tell her something." Audrey mutters, getting off of the bus once it stopped in front of their school building, Mal's head turns, watching her friend approach the raven haired girl.

"Alright, Mal, remember, you hate her." She mumbles, jumping in her seat, shaking her head and preparing herself, putting on the facade, the mask of Mal Moors, mortal enemy of Evie Stark or something like that.

"Evie! Hey, how was your weekend?" Audrey greets her friend, tapping her on the shoulder as Evie turns, Harry right behind her, "Oh, look, Scottish dude is here too." She mumbles, looking at him with a glare, "It's yer annoyin' friend. ah'll try to find Uma. Ah'll see ye later, Eves."

"What's up with you two?" Evie chuckles, walking by Audrey's side as Mal barrels through them, sending them the finger behind her back as she rushes to her locker, Evie growls, leaving Audrey to smirk, "What's up with _you two?_ Ever since last week, the both of you are all the school talks about."

"Well, that little friend of yours hates my guts. I think it'd be rude if I don't reciprocate her feelings." Evie replies, still glaring at the blonde a few lockers down, Mal turns her head, seeing brown eyes, staring at her, she didn't know if her heart jumped or anything but Evie Stark was staring at her, and she was staring back.

"Well, that little friend of mine is not in the decathlon team and I was wondering, actually, Jane and I were wondering if you would like to join." Audrey smiles nervously, taking the yellow coat, their uniform from her locker, offering it to the raven haired girl. 

_"What?"_ Evie gasps, moving away from the brunette as she shakes her head, "I-I can't accept this." She mutters, pushing the coat away from Audrey who only giggles, "Please, as team captain, I'm pretty sure I want you, literally the smartest girl in school in my team." She encourages, draping the yellow article of clothing around Evie's shoulders, pulling her in for a hug. 

"Mal's walking behind you, I'll leave you two alone." Audrey whispers, running away from Evie, "Wha––"

"So, guess you're part of the decathlon team now, huh?" Mal says coolly, leaning on Evie's locker as she puts her hands inside the pockets of her jacket, Evie gulps, overthinking that maybe she took Mal's spot in the team and she's about to beat her up or maybe kill he–

"Congrats. Just wanted to say that. And, uh, good luck." Mal chuckles, patting her back and clearing her throat before leaving the heiress alone, completely confused by the sudden change of heart the blonde had for her. 

* * *

"I take back what I said, you're fucking annoying." Mal groans as she bangs her head on the laboratory table, earning a muffled scoff from behind Evie's mask, "Right back at you, dimwit." Evie replies, coughing up and fanning the smoke away from their table. 

To further explain, they were paired up in a Chemistry experiment, Evie knew the more efficient way to make the formulas, Mal knew other ways, put two and two together and you'd know that they did make a mixture. Chaos. 

"It wasn't me who put the heat up, was it?" Mal asks sarcastically as she removes her mask blowing the smoke away while Evie lets out an offended sound, "Well, it wasn't me who put two cups more, was it?" She retorts, shoving past the blonde as she takes the pass, asking the teacher if she could go clean herself, Mal follows. 

"Uh-oh, our school's about to have a murder scene if no one comes between them." Carlos, the kid Mal protected a few days ago mumbles right beside Jane, who, in turn was peeking out from behind all the smoke, "I can't really leave, only two at a time can leave, right?"

"Do you want our school to become a muder scene?" Carlos repeats, earning a sigh from Jay sitting across him, "Look, I'll cause a distraction but you'd have to be out quick."

Just when he was about to walk towards their teacher, Evie enters the room, sweat dripping down her neck as she sits back down, smirking, Mal returns, maybe a few minutes after Evie, blood rushing from her lip, "What the hell happened?"

"Your friend was a clutz trying to reach over the stall doors to dump some water on me, she slipped and busted her lip." Evie chortles, earning a sigh of relief from Mal once the bell rings, signalling the end of classes for the day, also the end of hell for the two. 

"Evie, team meeting, Mal, get your ass off of here, Nat's waiting for you." Audrey yells, pulling Evie away as Mal sighs, picking her bag up and holding the towel up to her lips as she gets outside, opening the door of Nat's car, "Woah, did you get beat up again?"

"Yeah, by a damn door." She groans when Natasha removes the towel, putting on ointment on her busted lip, she might be a heartless agent with a penchant for murder but this was Mal, she's different. She cares. Somehow. 

She begins driving away, taking the longer route, Mal furrows her eyebrows, taking a look at Natasha, "Am I in trouble? We only take this route when I'm in trouble." She mumbles worriedly, slumping back in her seat when Nat hums. 

"There's something I had to ask you." Natasha murmurs, taking a turn, stopping at a red light, Mal nods, "You and Steve are close, right?" She asks, her eyes meeting Mal's green ones on the rear view mirror, the blonde sighs, a small smile slowly being formed on her lips as she shakes her head. 

"Remember when you told me to come down and meet him because he needed a friend?" She reminisces, Nat nods, "Well, that night, I told him all the things he missed out on, I basically explained the entirety of Harry Potter to him." She chuckles, "How is that relevant, though?"

"Well, that night, I made sure to keep him up with everything. I didn't realize we became closer until he opened up to me about this dude that died during the war. Bucky, was his name. That's when I realized that we were friends." She finishes, earning a hum from Natasha as she rounds a corner. 

"How about the two of us? In a scale of "I know you enough," and, "I trust you to hide a dead body with me," where are we?" She asks, sighing in frustration when there was a slight traffic jam, Mal begins to ponder on their relationship. The answer was expected. 

"I trust you enough to even let you in on my murder plans." Mal smiles, staring at Natasha's eyes, reflecting the same color as hers. Thoughts were running around her head, every memory, every little thing they both did, usually, it's her brain that speaks, this time, she lets her heart do the talking. 

"Believe it or not, _you're_ _my_ _hero_ , Nat, it sucks saying that, I felt like I just threw up in my mouth but really, if you weren't there to save me, to keep me and raise me like your own, I wouldn't have a roof over my head, I wouldn't have three meals a day, a proper education," She rambles, grinning at the smile that was unconsciously forming on Natasha's face, "I would be dead if it weren't for you. You're the weirdest yet the only right thing to ever happen in my life, you're my best friend." 

"What if I don't want to be your best friend anymore? What if Steve doesn't want to be your friend anymore?" Nat asks curiously, her green eyes peering on to the blonde beside her, furrowing her eyebrows, unaware that her heart just dropped. 

"Wha– what do you mean?" Mal stammers, adjusting herself on her seat as she clutches her seat belt, Nat smiles, "Technically, I wanted you to be my sister but I can't, so, I did the closest thing that I could. I'm officially a mother now, thanks to you." She retorts, handing Mal a stack of papers, leaving her both dumbfounded and in tears, "But of course, you have to sign it first before I even call you my daughter."

"How is Steve a part of this?" She mutters, analyzing each page, not even bothering to wait until they're home, grabbing a pen from her bag and signing it immediately, which, surprised Nat, a lot, "He wanted in. He told me that you're the only one keeping him sane aside from the others, and, he misses having a sister. He's your dad now."

Natasha stops the car in front of the SHIELD Headquarters, shutting it off as she gets out, raising her eyebrow at the familiar red car parked in front of her, she doesn't say anything about it when Mal pulls her inside, still reading the papers as they get a greeting from Steve, "Before you say something, that's your daughter now." Natasha points as Mal gets up the stairs, the soldier sighs, "Tony's here."

"What would be the reason for him to come here?" She whispers, rushing towards Mal as she approaches their training facility, "He gave us a recruit." He replies, walking briskly by her side as their now, daughter, which was still weird to call her, enter the facility. 

"Ah, Inferno, the person I was meaning to speak to." At that voice, Mal stops reading, dropping the papers and clenching her jaw as she turns to the side, about to growl and glare at Tony Stark when everything stops for a moment. 

Because she doesn't see the billionaire but he was there, her attention was just caught by something else. Or, in this situation, _someone_ else. And it's like time stopped, like everything disappeared and all there was were the two of them. 

"Mal, Natasha, this is Evie Stark, our new recruit." Steve introduces awkwardly as Mal scoffs, licking her lips before shaking her head, "Our what?"

"Our new recruit which you will be training from this day on. From what I've heard about Audrey and the rest, she's your classmate. I figured you would be the best one to pick." He explains, a little confused, but not as confused as Evie, her arms crossed and her jaw dropped to the ground, "Wait, Audrey Mountbatten is here?"

"She's one of our smartest. She's more on the technology side." Natasha explains briefly as Mal laughs disbelievingly, "I-I'm supposed to _train_ her?" She asks incredulously, pointing at Evie as she groans, "So you're telling me my friends are here, and this idiot is supposed to train me?"

"Hey! I'm not an idiot." Mal murmurs, turning around to face her for a moment before giving her, uh, parents, yeah it still sounds weird, a look, "I knew you'd be bad parents but damn, why do it when I'm your child?"

"What? She's your child?" This time it was Tony who interferes, now joining in on the utter confusion of everyone, "Yes, she's our child." Nat and Steve replies in unison before turning back to Mal, "What's with you and Evie?"

"Can't Jay train her? Lonnie? Ben? Why me?" She whines, pouting at the two as Evie approaches them, arms crossed above her chest, "Because you're the only suitable candidate, kid. Look, just train her and try to move past your differences." 

"I can't believe I'm training you." Mal mumbles, glaring at the raven haired girl who only scoffs in return, "I can't believe you and Inferno are the same. She seems nicer." 

The three parents look at each other, looks like this is going to be a _long_ training.


	9. восемь

The five of them all stare at each other, the tension in the air rising rapidly with each ticking of the clock as Mal fidgets with the loose strands of thread on her shirt.

Evie begins to itch, scratching herself and relieving her from the tension she was currently suffering with. "Oh, was there some staring contest going on?" Clint's muffled voice erupts from the door, hands inside his pockets as he looks at the unusual people.

"I'm sorry, I'm still a little confused, how–– how can Mal be your daughter? Last time I checked she was this little kid that kicked my ass." Tony sputters, still dumbfounded by everything, "I can't legally adopt her to be my sister. The closest thing was to be her mom." Natasha explains, smacking Mal's arm when she snaps her fingers, about to set fire on Evie's jacket.

"You adopted her?" Clint asks from his place by the door, a bit surprised by the new information, Steve nods, _"We_ adopted her." He corrects, pulling Mal away from the Stark heiress as Evie began playing with the small blade on her hands, "What?"

"Steve wanted in, basically, we're her legal guardians now and since we're her legal guardians we say that she will train Evie." Nat says a little too quickly that it has Mal leaving out a low whine, a groan that was both silent and not, Evie glares at her. "What is it with the two of you?"

That question was left unanswered when thunder literally boomed around them, signalling the return of the mighty Thor back down on Earth, not only that, but, Bruce enters as well, completing the original six Avengers, leaving the two teenagers with two opposite reactions. One was awe, one was annoyance. As you can guess, Mal was the latter.

"What– what's happening? Is there some kind of mission we were supposed to know?" Bruce asks, a little confused as he stands beside Tony, shaking his hand and giving both Steve and Natasha a nod while Thor enters, his cape billowing right behind him as he held on to Mjolnir.

"Tiny humans," He greets, looking at his comrades, a smile etched on his nearly perfect face. Not a surprise, he _is_ a god, after all. He then turns to the two teenagers, squinting his eyes more at them, "Tinier humans." He mumbles, taking a deep breath before dropping Mjolnir, crossing his arms.

"So, again, why are we called in here?" Bruce repeats, earning the attention of Tony, "Well, we have two new recruits to the team. You know Mal, the one SHIELD Agent with the fire," He reminds him, earning a nod from the scientist, "Then there's my daughter. Evie. She's more like the brains and as far as I know, Happy took her to self defense classes instead of dance when she was in middle school."

Thor clears his throat, pointing at the two, "Aren't they too young to be, uh, Avengers?" He asks, referring to the two who only stared at him with incredulous expressions, "There's no, "too young," requirement. I bet your ass if the kids from The Incredibles were real they'd be part of this team." Evie retorts, crossing her arms and earning nods of agreement from the rest, an apology from Thor.

"What's that?" Steve whispers to Mal, asking about The Incredibles, she chuckles, "We'll watch it later, _dad_." She winks playfully, Bruce begins to raise his eyebrows, "Did I hear that right? Dad? You're his daughter?"

"Don't act too surprised, Banner, they just adopted her now." Clint supplies, putting a hand on Mal's shoulders. The silence between them after that was deafening that you could absolutely hear a pin drop from miles away. Or, at least, it was silent until Tony hums, "Our question was left unanswered because you two came. So, what's it with you two?" He repeats, crossing his arms and facing the two teenagers who stare at each other, sputtering incoherent words until they were left silent.

"So, there's no reason why you two are always fighting?" Steve asks, walking away from them, starting to give them a small tour with the distances they've been reaching, the two remain silent, awkwardly glancing at each other, constantly clearing their throats and fidgeting with their hands, Natasha smirks, "Well, from what I've heard, if someone makes fun of you for absolutely no reason, they like you."

That stops them for some reason, their jaws dropping to the ground as Mal scoffs, "There is _no_ way in hell that I like her!" She screeches, pointing aggressively towards the heiress who nods in agreement, finding herself on par with the blonde's statement. Deciding to play with them more, Tony joins in on the fun.

"Oh, if you don't like each other, what's the reason?" He asks, smirking down at them as they both stand there in a sputtering mess again, their words not making any sense as the Avengers leave them alone, walking away and about to head towards the kitchen to talk about the new plans for the Avengers Tower when Evie groans, "I hate you!"

That ought to grab their attention because next thing they knew, Mal was responding, "Oh, sure, when they're here you can't say you hate me but when we're alone you could. Nice try, Stark, but I can handle you on my own." She whispers, taunting the raven haired girl as she approaches her, clenching her jaw and glaring at her, Evie's eyes flick down her lips momentarily.

"You know, of all the people I've met in my life, you're the only one who makes my blood boil." Evie retorts, not even bothered by the close proximity that they were in as she leans closer, taking ragged breaths as Mal raises an eyebrow, "I tried being nice to you, you just suck as a person."

"Says the girl who also started this. Says the girl who busted her lip just because she was trying to pour water down on me." Evie smirks, crossing her arms and scrunching her nose towards the blonde who growls, touching her lip and hissing in pain when she holds the wound.

"You're one to talk. You literally ruined my art project!" She replies, jabbing her finger on Evie's chest while the taller girl gasps, "Hey, I wouldn't have ruined it if you didn't take my phone!"

"I wouldn't have taken it if you weren't taking pictures of me!" The smaller girl says, Evie laughs mockingly, "Y-You thought that I was taking pictures of _you?_ Yeah, keep on dreaming, Moors."

"Technically, it's Romanoff now, thank you very much." Mal replies sarcastically, unable to catch the smile on Natasha's lips as she watches Evie roll her eyes, glaring at her until they were only staring at each other so intensely that Tony sighs, wanting to both interfere and not. He chose the latter.

"Now, Capsicle, Rapunzel, that's what you call, "Sexual Tension." You've probably experienced it." Tony chuckles before turning back around, leaving the two to stare at each other, growling and staying inside their little world as the adults walk away.

"Fuck off, will you?" Mal whispers, shaking her head and walking away, heading straight towards her room when Evie follows her for two reasons, one was she didn't know where her father had went and two was she wanted to see her friends.

"If you're going to follow me like a lost puppy make sure you're six feet away from me." The agent mumbles lazily, pressing the elevator button and looking over her shoulder, kinda relieved that Evie was actually six feet away from her. 

Honestly, Evie didn't know why she was following Mal when she could go and search for her friends alone but there's just something about her that wants her to stay, to follow the blonde even if she launches herself off of the building's roof. 

Mal can be the most annoying person she's ever met but she's also the only person she could trust right now. She doesn't know how she's come to that conclusion and she most certainly don't know why but maybe trusting her was worth a shot. After all, she's going to be the one training her for the next few months, maybe even her partner in the next few years. 

"Was that why you didn't talk about your family too much?" She whispers once they were inside the elevator, both on opposing sides, the blonde nods. 

Like Evie, she doesn't even know the _slightest_ reason why she's even responding, why she's even looking at the girl, dead in the eye, a small smile twitching on her lips. Mal doesn't trust easily, she doesn't trust you unless she's deemed you stable and definitely not a psycho. 

It's actually scary how she wants to tell Evie everything. It wasn't with the fact that it was her father who saved her or because she was her father's daughter but because she was this girl. This girl that if you stared at from afar, you'll still notice the brightest smile you could ever see, the twinkle in her eyes that would send your heart into shambles. 

"I can't just say that Natasha Romanoff raised me, can I?" She chuckles, putting her hands inside her pockets as Evie laughs along with her, "She's my best friend. Uma can say she's my best friend but it would always be Nat. There's Steve too, but, you know, I'm closer to her." She smiles, "And they're your parents now, isn't that weird?"

"With all the lectures Steve had given me for staying up late and all the times Nat made me stay at home instead of go to a mission because I was sick? Yeah, sure it's weird." She replies sarcastically, getting a small laugh from the raven haired girl. "You're not that bad, you know," Mal whispers, shyly admitting it to the raven haired girl, Evie furrows her eyebrows. 

"I mean, I'm pretty sure if someone else is Stark's daughter, they would've dropped out of high school, had multiple DUI's and maybe in rehab right now. You're far from that." She chuckles, blushing a little as she sees Evie's smile. While their moment was adorable, it was ruined when a shriek and the dropping of a burrito, which, Mal weirdly knew the sound of, was heard. 

"You two were _in there_ and nobody was _murdered?_ " Audrey gasps, blinking rapidly as Uma hurriedly picks up her burrito, because you know, reasons. 

"She was six feet away, asshat, move an inch closer and she's probably dead by now." Mal replies a little too defensively as she moves past the brunette, leaving Evie alone with the two, staring at them with such intensity that when it broke, it made the two jump. 

"You work for SHIELD and you didn't tell me?" Evie grunts, hitting the two of them, even Uma who isn't particularly close to the girl, Audrey huffs, "Hey! It's a secret I can't just fucking tell!" She responds, running away from the Stark while Uma gets dragged by the ear. 

"Ow! Hey!" Mal hears from her spot inside the living room, already eating the bag of chips she stole from Jane, who, was now also held on to by the ear by Evie, "Hey, no visitors are allowed here!" Jay huffs, about to pull Uma and Jane away from the raven haired girl, Mal stops him. 

"She's– she's with me. I'm training her." She pants, stopping everyone inside the room, silence engulfing them once more as she gives a small smile towards Evie, nodding her head a little as she lets go of Jay, already staring at her incredulously as Lonnie scrunches her face. 

Ben was just an inch away from exploding with the new information he was given, his jaw dropped to the ground as Evie sighs. "What do you mean _train_ her? As an agent?" Lonnie asks, standing up from her spot on the ground as Mal shakes her head, "No, as an Avenger."

That new information just gets them more confused that Uma had to take a seat, clutching her head as she stares at them. Gil and Chad were just confused, "I think I need a minute to process this." Audrey mumbles as Uma turns her head, "A minute? I need a whole damn day for this."

Once again, silence dawns on them that they could hear the Avengers' footsteps approaching from a floor away, all staring at them like they just stepped inside a murder scene with how quiet they all were, "Did someone die and we don't now about it?" 

"I don't think someone died, Stark." Thor says obviously, pointing towards everyone, he nods, rolling his eyes at the obvious as he stands beside his daughter, "So, now that you've met everyone, Itsy-Bitsy told me that we have to run some diagnostics on you. Is that okay?" He whispers, staring at Evie's eyes who only nods in return, "It's fine, dad. So, when does it start?"

"Dr. Banner here will take blood samples out of you," Steve smiles encouragingly, towering above the girl as she sat on one of the chairs Bruce had in his lab, "What for?" She asks, expecting an answer from him when someone else answers, "To sell on eBay."

She glares at Mal who was sharing a laugh with her father, "Don't listen to her, it's so we could check if you have any illness or if your is compatible with some of ours. You know, in case of an, uh, accident." Lonnie replies awkwardly, tying the rubber band on her arm as Bruce approaches her with the needle. 

"Agent Barton here will check whatever weapon of your choice will be." Natasha tells Evie, showing her the arsenal of weapons SHIELD owned, she smirks, taking a knife from it, "Hey, Uma, looks like you have a match." Ben exlaims, smiling ever so brightly at them until a knife sticks beside his ear, a literal centimeter away from him as it lands on the wall. 

"I don't do knife fights, I throw them." She smirks, leaving everyone astonished as she moves away, entering the gym as Natasha raises an eyebrow, "Mal, I'll give you a hundred dollars if she becomes my daughter in law." She tells the blonde who was now choking on air, clutching her throat as she stares at Natasha, throwing a bullet at her while her friends stare at her. 

"Daughter in law? Geez, I know you two are, "family," and all but it's not like she's your daughter." Audrey chuckles, earning muffled sounds from the Avengers, a wince from Mal, "That would be funny if it was true. Technically, from this day on, Mal's my daughter." Nat replies, ruffling her hair and leaving her alone, "Our daughter, actually, but more on that later." 

With Steve's last words, Mal was left to explain, her friends all staring at her with impatient gazes, she only shrugs at them with a smirk, "Like they said, more on that later."

Evie watches as Mal enter the gym, putting her hair up in a bun as she leans on the ring, "Now, we'll see your actual skills on the battlefield. Or, in a battle. Natasha would usually offer to help but she's not in the mood. So, I guess we could call Maria Hill up here." Steve explains to her, that earns a scoff from Mal as she jumps on, cracking her knuckles and stretching her body as she enters the ring, "Wasn't I supposed to train her? I think it's only fit if I'm the one sparring with her, don't you think?"

"Oh, no. I can't watch this." Jane whimpers, covering her face behind Ben's jacket as Mal smirks, walking around in circles while Evie chuckles, "Don't get too cocky, Romanoff." She taunts, earning a nose scrunch from the girl, "Yeah, shut up, Stark, bring it on."

"Can she have your last name instead? It's weird hearing Romanoff and it isn't me." Natasha whispers to Captain America, she earns a stern look and a sigh, "No. She's a Romanoff. Deal with it, Nat." He replies, clearing his throat as he watched the two, a little concerned and a little interested on how it would play out. Those two turned to fear the moment they started. 

It was Evie who landed the first blow, swinging her right arm towards Mal's face while the left hits her stomach not even a second after, leaving her a little taken aback and a little out of it at first before Mal attacks her head on, clenching her jaw as she ducks another punch, grabbing the girl's waist and tackling her down on the ground. That would've worked if Evie didn't kick her face while they were down on the ground. "Wow, for the first time in my sixteen years of existence, I felt bad for Mal." 

"Told you, don't get too cocky." Evie whispers, crouching down beside a groaning Mal, expecting her to surrender when Mal grabs her by the neck, pulling her down on the ground as Mal towers over her this time, "Yeah, maybe now's the time I get cocky." 

"Oh, shut up." Evie retorts, standing back up as they throw punches at each other, dodging each blow, each kick. At some points, it looked like they were dancing to a song. A dance so deadly that the moment they begun, everyone knew it was a right decision to put her on the team. 

"You didn't train her?" Clint asks Tony as he watches his daughter proudly, frowning and hissing in pain when Mal lands a punch on her jaw, "I didn't. Like I said, she ditched dance classes for self defense classes back in middle school. I didn't actually think it would be used someday but here we are." He replies, taking a deep breath, his lips twitching into a smile when Evie gets Mal down on her knee. 

"Wow, and we expect them to be at school tomorrow. They're killing each other." Natasha mumbles, ready to stop the two when Evie surprises her as she grabs Mal's punch, twisting her arm and wrapping her legs around Mal's neck, dropping her down on the ground as her thighs begin to choke the hell out of the blonde. 

"Hey, you used that on Happy, right?" Tony asks nonchalantly towards the redhead who chuckles, "Yeah, I did. Wow, your daughter's mastered it pretty good."

"F-Fine! Let go of me! I surrender." Mal chokes out, sighing in relief when Evie lets her go out of the death grip she had. "Huh, last time I checked, Mal doesn't give up." The raven haired girl smiles, helping the girl up who unconsciously smiles in return, "You're great, Stark. I'm actually looking forward to work with you."

"Yeah, enough of the heart eyes, let's go." Tony announces, taking his daughter home, but not without sharing another smile with Mal. 

* * *

"I don't know what happened to two of my students but I hope that it happened on two different occasions and that they weren't involved with each other." Mr. Clarke announces, looking at his two students who were seated upfront, both with bruised and busted lips, bruises on their jaws and the rest of their body. 

"I assure you, sir, we didn't really see each other after school yesterday." Mal smiles, helping them out of the situation as Evie slips a note on her desk, "Alright but please, head to the nurse's office after the bell." He smiles, writing them a pass that he hands Evie. 

"Read the note, jackass." Said girl whispers to the blonde with a teasing smile which was enough to send Mal into a puddle, well, thank god that she didn't because if she did, that would be more embarrassing than having the same girl kick her ass. 

She opens the note with furrowed eyebrows, rolling her eyes and taking a deep sigh before turning to the raven haired girl, "Funny, come on, we have to haul ass before we get late to second period." She tells her, pulling her on to her feet as they head straight to the nurse's office. 

They might be enemies. Or at least, frenemies, now? Whatever. They might not be the best of friends, they might annoy each other every single day but that can never take away this little thing between them. No one knows what it is, they don't know what it is. But it's weird and kinda special. 

"I'm sorry I kicked your ass." Evie apologizes, adjusting the ice pack on Mal's face as she wraps her arms with the elastic bandage, Mal smiles at her, "It's fine. Not the first time it was kicked anyways." 

The two bask in the silence as Mal finishes taping the bandage, taking the ice pack on her own, "This was nice, you know. But it sill doesn't change anything between us. I still annoy you, and you still annoy me." She adds, earning a nod of approval from the girl. 

"It was actually nice seeing you smile." She finishes, opening her locker as Evie nods, smiling back at her before walking back to her own locker a few steps away, "It was actually nice seeing you smile too."

The bell rings moments after that. And just like that, they were enemies again, throwing notes in class, sending glares at each other. Even though deep inside, they were glad to be, "frenemies," with each other. 


	10. девять

"Alright, class, I expect to have that four page essay by tomorrow unless you nutjobs want an F for this semester." One of the less likable teachers, Mr. Rooney, mumbles, glaring at his students, all hiding behind their Literature books as the bell rings, giving them enough reason to avoid his gaze and stand up.

"Bloody hell, wonder what's up his arse today." Harry Hook mutters under his breath as he fixes his bag, giving Mal a small smile and patting her on the shoulder before leaving the room. Harry wasn't bad, he was fine. He's more of an, "eh," and doesn't pick sides between Mal and Evie.

"Don't forget it!" Mr. Rooney yells once more as Mal blows out the puff of air she's been holding, a relieved look on her face when she approaches her locker, a note peeking out from one of the holes, she furrows her eyebrows.

**_from what i've heard, you like strawberries but hate lollipops. enjoy and see u soon :)_ **   
**_–– eggs_ **

Mal chuckles at the pen name, remembering how stupid she was for calling Evie, "eggs," during her rescue mission all because she had, "EGS," in her initials. She opens her locker to see it filled to the brim with strawberry lollipops. Like, sure, it's annoying that she has to eat them but it's cute for Evie to remember nonetheless.

"Don't act too full of yourself, you still annoy me." Evie whispers, passing behind her with a smirk as she takes a lollipop from the locker, Mal could only smile, following the direction where Evie had just went to. Maybe this, "frenemies," thing isn't so bad after all.

"Oh, candy!" She hears Carlos exclaim from behind her, already removing the wrapper from one of the lollipops and popping it in his mouth before Mal gives him a death stare, making sure he doesn't take any more candy as she puts it inside her bag, making sure that the note wouldn't be seen by him. Also making a mental note to finally listen in on Uma, Harry, Audrey and Jane if she wanted to get, "payback."

"This is the first time I've seen Mal have a stash of food inside her locker. This is impossible. Also, it's weird that it's lollipops." Ben announces once he comes into the scene, about to steal a candy from her when she zips up her bag, "You want your hand still intact by the end of this day, stop stealing my stuff." She warns, already walking away from them, opening her phone to see a text from Nat, telling her that Steve will be the one picking her up instead of Natasha.

"I gotta go. Steve's picking me up." She announces, earning a nod from Ben and a little gasp from Carlos. He knows she lives with the first Avenger and the deadliest Avenger but it's not everyday he sees them.

She sighs, stepping foot in front of the shool building, hands clutching her bag and about to wait for Steve when someone else stands beside her, six feet away, dark blue leather jacket, a red crop top underneath with leather jeans and sneakers. She knew exactly who it was. "Hey, thanks, for the candy."

"I can't believe how trusting you are. You took candy from your enemy, I could've poisoned you." Evie replies, an eyebrow raised towards the blonde who shrugs in return, "Well, I don't find a reason to not trust you. Besides, it's a lollipop, I can get poisoned on and on but Bruce will find a cure."

Evie's heart didn't know how to respond to that and neither does her brain because Mal just told her she trusted her. Kinda. And it warms her heart because of all the people she wanted to trust her, Mal was by far the most surprising of them all.

"Don't get too ahead of yourself, I still hate you." Mal reminds her with a tiny smirk, "Oh, don't worry. I didn't forget. I still hate you too." She replies, catching a glimpse of the blonde's grin as two cars pull up in front of them.

"Mal, come on." Steve calls out from the car as he lowers the window, nodding his head and ushering her to climb in before he turns to the other girl, "Evie, nice to see you." He greets, earning a nod and smile from the billionaire as Tony opens the door for his daughter, "Okay, it was nice seeing you two not kill each other but we got to go!"

"Cap! Hey! I'll see you around too!" Tony adds, entering his car before driving off in a rush. Mal just chuckles, thinking that Tony might be late for a meeting before getting inside of her own car.

Steve chuckles at her, giving her an odd look. Then that odd look turns to a smirk, then to a smile that becomes a grin which eventually turns to a laugh. Mal was just confused if he's lost his mind already or if he was drugged. Turns out, it's neither of those two.

"What?" She asks, raising an eyebrow at him and expecting an immediate answer when he shakes his head, chuckling at her as she stares at him confused. "Oh my god, Steve, what is it?" She repeats, actually relieved that they stopped on a red light as he smiles at her, "You say that you don't like her. Everyone else can see that you do."

That catches Mal a little off guard for some reason but she composes herself together pretty quickly. "She's nice. She's a decent person. But that doesn't automatically mean that I like her." She replies defensively, already denying whatever was up inside Steve's mind when the soldier nods.

"I know, I know. I might not know you as much as Natasha does but I'm aware when you lie. Your mouth can deny everything but your eyes can't lie." He reminds the blonde, smiling at her one last time before turning the radio on, preventing them from basking in silence as Mal sat there, silent and unable to move, contemplating whether or not she should wear shades whenever she's with Steve from now on.

She watches the roads as they park in front of the SHIELD Headquarters, with Steve a little behind than the blonde who was already walking inside, just wanting to learn whatever she could from Jane. For, you know, "payback."

"Hey, where are you going? There's a meeting, come on up." Clint tells her, dragging her away from the kitchen and pulling her towards the meeting room, she groans silently, not really wanting to deal with anything except her payback right now.

Mal sits on her chair near the far back, in between Uma and Audrey who were now half asleep, which was surprising because it was usually them who likes these meetings. "Hey, guys, wake up." She whispers, nudging them awake, "Shut up." Uma mumbles, shoving her face away as she slumps forward, her head on her arms as she falls asleep on the table, Mal doesn't need to turn to Audrey to know that she's done the same.

"Why am I here?" Mal mutters, just wanting a way out of it when Natasha stops her, "Stop that, we're here to talk about you being an Avenger. Sit down." She warns, actually shocking the blonde enough that she followed her mother's instruction, sitting down with her mouth open, jaw dropped to the ground for a while before nodding her head.

"We need to fit you for new suits, new weapons, run your diagnostics again." Bruce rambles, checking his clipboard when Natasha steals it from him, smirking up at Mal with a teasing glint in her eyes, "And we need to see your heart, you know, to check if Evie's inside."

Mal chokes on thin air, slamming her hands down on Uma in the process, waking her up as she falls from the chair, "Don't give me that look, you don't think we saw your little staring contest when she kicked your ass?" Natasha chuckles as the blonde grunts, about to deny everything when Steve comes in, "Nat, Language."

"Oh come on, why don't you tell Nick off when he swears?" Nat retorts, crossing her arms and complaining to the super soldier as he sighs, "Because he's the boss of me and you're not." He replies with his hands on his hips, Natasha waves it off by simply turning to Mal again. "So, come on, what is it with you and Stark?"

The blonde stares at her uneasily, a part of her wants to lie and tell her that all she's saying and what she's hearing is bullshit, while the other part of her wants to tell the redhead about their frenemy thing going on. Her mouth doesn't even let her decide, she just lets out an inhuman noise. "What about me and Stark? There's absolutely nothing." She mutters right after that, willing herself to still stare at Natasha dead in the eye.

They stare at each other for a while before Natasha shakes her head, "Bullshit. You're doing that thing with your fingers, stop cracking your knuckles, I know you're lying." She tells the blonde, Mal fights back, she isn't backing down, not even from her mother.

"I told you, there's nothing. She hates me, I hate her. That's it." She replies, more confidently this time, a small smirk on her face as Natasha squints her eyes at her, finally resigning to defeat as she lets Mal go, "Fine. While there's nothing now, I bet that there will be something."

"In your dreams, Nat. Now I gotta go before ants swarm my bag from all the candy Evie gave me." She smiles, running away from the redhead as soon as she saw her jaw drop, laughing gleefully and entering her room. Natasha can catch her later, right now, her problem is that stupid four page essay.   
  
  


//  
  
  


"Stop smiling, there's literally something going on in that big brain of yours." He tells his daughter as he lets Jarvis take complete control of his car, he turns to his daughter, crossing his arms and staring at her as she bites her lip, stopping herself from smiling.

"Dad, there's nothing. Can't I just be happy?" She smiles sweetly, hoping she'd be let off the hook with that when Tony shakes his head, smiling at her as he crosses his arms, "Tell your old man what's going on, come on." He encourages her, still smiling as Evie avoids his gaze, biting the inside of her cheeks and still refusing to tell him when he sighs.

"Evelyn Grimhilde Stark, what is in your mind? Tell me before I scan your brain or something." He pouts, still staring at his daughter as Evie gives up, glaring at her father as he grins, "So, is this girl talk? Pepper told me you would usually sigh before you start it." Tony asks.

And while it was sweet for him to remember small details about her, she was still annoyed by the fact that she had to think of a quick alibi or just tell the truth about how she and Mal are in no longer bad terms but not exactly good either.

"If you won't start then maybe I will. Why were you and Mal talking earlier? You both seem smiley and happy out there." He smirks, catching her red handed as her cheeks begin to flush. "It was nothing, I-I insulted her, she didn't have a response, that's all." 

"Yes, of course, that would explain why you asked Happy to buy you a whole bag of strawberry lollipops. Last time I checked, Mal loves strawberries but hates lollipops." He says knowingly. He might've been absent in the blonde's life but Natasha and Fury weren't exactly gone from his. 

They would always go on and on and on about how Mal would raid the fridge inside the headquarters just to find strawberries or how she and Clint would open the vending machines to take all the strawberry flavored ones.

"The kid's not that bad, you know? Why don't you give her a chance?" He asks as he enters Stark Tower's parking lot, Evie shrugs, "Maybe I will. I'd think about it." She answers, stepping away from her father as she enters the building. 

While she avoids and topic that involves Mal, it's time she face another problem. Four page essay on Shakespeare? Probably worse than the blonde. 

* * *

"Moors, glad to know you finally passed someting on time." Mr. Rooney says a little surprised, a little impressed as the blonde smiles from her seat, "Didn't want to disappoint you for three years in a row." She answers cockily as Jay snorts from the back. As if she was the one who's done it, no sir. 

Mal and Uma exchanged essays, Mal did her essay on music, Uma did her essay on Literature, paid each other ten bucks each and then called it even. There's no fucking way Mal would even dare start an essay on Shakespeare. 

The class was nothing but a blur to everyone after that. The bell rings right after that, giving Mal the opportunity to get close to the Stark heiress without being too suspicious. She waits for her to stand, following her to the door and pressing something into her hand as they get out, "I heard you loved gummy bears but hated the ones dipped in chocolate." 

Evie feels a bag being pressed on her palm which she takes, shifting her gaze to the blonde slightly as she walked past her with a smirk, leaving a speechless Evie alone. "What ye lookin' at, princess?" Harry asks from behind her, startling her for a bit before she chuckles, shaking her head, "Nothing. Nothing really important."

Harry doesn't seem fazed by it as he nods his head, tugging at her sleeve to pull her inside the cafeteria for lunch, taking their food. It was a surprise to Evie that they didn't sit inside and Harry was pulling her outside on the quad. None of it made sense until she randomly takes a seat in front of Mal, Harry and Audrey immediately filling the spots beside her as Uma and Ben did the same to the blonde. 

"Oh, what a coincidence." Carlos says sarcastically as he looks at the two, earning laughs from the others as they began to flush, hiding their faces as they looked down, not really wanting to deal with anything. 

"Come on, you're friends, there's nothing to be ashamed of it!" Lonnie encourages, starting a wave of agreement to go throughout their little group. Although, said little group had someone missing and Mal notices immediately. 

"Where's Jane?" She asks, concerned for their youngest, their what they like to say, "cinnamon roll," of the group. Audrey furrows her eyebrows, "She said she wanted to stay back to get the extra mashed potatoes." She replies, feeling a little tense as Mal takes a deep breath, standing up and squinting her eyes towards the inside of the cafeteria, "Yeah, no, she's going to be the mashed potatoes."

She then takes off, running inside the campus as everyone tried to stop her, "I'll go get her." Jay says, about to stand up, only to be beaten by Evie, who was already up and running inside, following Mal's tracks, "Oh no."

Mal runs in the halls, looking from ever corner, every side, every room until she finds them. Jane was there, pressed up against the wall of lockers with Zevon and his gang mocking her, emptying the contents of her bag as she tries her best not to, you know, expose herself. 

The blonde cracks her knuckles, her eyes meeting Jane's, a small smirk coming into the brunette's face as Mal pulls Zevon away from her, "Weren't we clear days ago?" She asks, her voice threatening and unwavering as the boy laughs, "I don't take orders from you."

"Jane, run!" Mal yells, avoiding the punch one of his cronies sent in her way, picking them up and throwing them down to the ground before facing the other one, which was a bad move since he landed a rather strong punch. 

Mal lunged forward, but reflex kicked in and the boy ducked, avoiding the blonde's hit. Mal was severely outnumbered, so it was only a matter of time before she was tackled down to the ground and more punches were landed on her. 

Blow after blow, laugh after laugh. She could feel the blood pouring out of her nose. She tries pushing them off, they don't even budge. She was so helpless she even thought of launching her fire launcher attached to her wrists until she realized how much it would damage her, SHIELD and all of the people she cared about. 

She didn't really think that there would be a chance for her to stand up until they were gone when all five of Zevon's gang, including him, were pulled away from her. "I thought I was the only one who could beat your ass." She hears a chuckle, knowing who exactly it was, she sighs disbelievingly. 

"Of all people, it's you who save me." She replies, dodging one of the boys and throwing a punch at them, surprisingly, Mal still was ready to put up a fight despite being beat up. And, honestly, Evie admires it so much. Mal's a fighter, not a quitter. 

"You take Zevon, I'll hold the others off." Evie breathes out, already kicking one of them beneath the knee, their body dropping to the floor with a thud as the boy groans, she then punches one of them on the crotch, and that was enough to send him down. 

"Also, I still despise you. Not because I'm helping you, we're already friends, don't get too excited." She adds on with a smile as Mal tries to grin, actually, she does grin, even if it hurts with all the forming bruises on her lips. "Right back at you, Stark." 

Mal does what she was told, taking Zevon down with a punch on the gut and kick on the crotch. "If this still doesn't clarify everything, next time will be worse." She gnarls, kicking him one last time before pulling Evie away. They both stop at the doors. 

"I'll see you later at training, yeah?" She asks, clenching her jaw when Evie chuckles, leaning closer to her, holding her jaw in place, "Yeah, I'll see you later. This is going to hurt for a bit, okay?" She whispers, Mal nods, her heart was racing at how close the raven haired girl was. 

Evie then adjust her jaw back and forth before snapping them back to place, if that was possible. Mal just winces for a bit. "I gotta go. You should head home. I'll see you later." She bids, unconcsciously placing a kiss on Mal's cheek. 

"Wha—?" Mal doesn't get an answer because Evie was already out of the doors. She just stood there, a smile growing on her face, slowly, silently, holding the spot where Evie's lips touched her skin.

She'll see her later. Yeah, she will.


	11. десять

"Wow, did Evie beat you up again?" Steve asks as he pulls a chair for Mal to sit in. The girl was sent home early due to her, you know, beaten up condition. She scoffs, staring at Steve with a smirk before hissing in pain as Natasha presses an ice pack on her ribs, "She actually helped me beat people up."

"Is that your bonding? Beating people up?" Natasha chuckles, earning a small laugh from the blonde, "Maybe. That's the only way we talk." She replies, raising her arm to catch the water bottle Clint had thrown for her to catch.

The quartet remains silent after that, the only noise they could hear was Mal gulping down water and the clanging of the tweezers against the metal tray where the cotton was. "You know, you two could have a chance. Just give it to her." Clint says from the door with his arms crossed as Mal shakes her head.

"I don't want to. I don't trust her." She replies, although it was a lie. She literally took candy that could've been poisoned from her. Maybe it's her hunger but deep inside she knew the girl can be trusted. She can go and deny how much she hated and distrust the girl over and over but she knew it wasn't true.

"What's not to trust about her?" Steve asks, of course, of all the people it's him to ask about what she doesn't trust. "Her last name." She mutters, confidently, actually proud of herself for that reason when Natasha rolls her eyes, "You chose to not trust her because of her last name? You and I share the last name, but Steve still trusts us."

"No I don't. I barely use the stove and yet I don't forget to turn it off. I trust the two of you the least." He says, remembering the time where Mal and Nat had left the stove on after burning the egg. Mal's literal weapon of choice was fire and yet she was too scared to even get near the burning egg.

Natasha stabs, gets punched, kicked, sometimes even shot on the daily, too, and yet she's afraid of the fucking oil that might get out of the pan while frying. Honestly, Steve feels like he's living back in the day since the two can only boil food.

"See? He trusts us." Natasha points out, tuning out most of what he said except the part where he told them he trusts them. The blonde scrunches her face, "Look, I just don't, okay? There's something about her I can't trust."

"You have to trust her at one point. After all, she's yours to handle. If something, if anything, ever happens between the two of you, it's up to you if you could trust her. Now go rest, you still have training."

Training. Yeah. More like hell and torture for Mal. Because, let's be honest, that thing that happened in school? Yeah, she can't trust Evie with her heart after that.

"Hey, Evie, look, we know it's not the best car out there but come on." Uma chuckles, taking Evie by the arm as the girl stared into oblivion, "Uh, yeah, sorry." She mutters, entering the truck as Chad and Gil jump on the back, giving Ben the thumbs up to start driving.

"This is SHIELD's property. Once your retinal scan, your fingerprints and your voice recognition is added to the system, you could use any car." Jay explains, although Evie wasn't listening, just looking outside the window in silence.

Jane and Audrey just knew something was off with the girl but they don't really know how to approach her. All they knew, Mal went home after she and Evie beat Zevon and his gang up. They don't really know if something else happened after that. If Mal said something to Evie that hit her really hard or vice versa.

Honestly, even Evie herself doesn't know what's running around her mind, _why did she do that?_ Was probably the most prominent question. Because why did she do it? Of all the things she could've done, she could have said or she could have left, a fucking kiss is what she did. Of anything she could have done. _A kiss_.

And Mal doesn't even move away from her when she did it. She just stood there as if it was normal. As if she _wanted_ it to happen. Did Mal want it? Did she _want_ it?

"Evie, you've been awfully quiet." Carlos mutters from the back, which, confused the hell out of everybody except Jane, "What the hell are you doing here? Did you guys see him enter?" Jay asks, turning his body around as Ben looks from the mirror, "Carlos?"

"Jane invited me." He mumbles, eyebrows furrowed as he looks between them, "You invited him?" Lonnie asks incredulously, turning to the girl as she tries defending herself, "In my defense, he found out about Ben being a SHIELD Agent on his own! I just told him that we are too." She whispers the last part to herself, which leads to a series of groans from everyone, except Evie, in the car.

"Come on, it's not that bad. So what if he knows? Maybe he could help." She smiles encouragingly to the two younger agents, smiling at them, "I've seen him at PE, he's fast but even Ben could take him down."

"Was that a compliment?" Ben asks unsurely as he enters the parking space, giving Evie enough reason to tense when she realized that Mal would be here, "It was an insult. Even Jane can kick your ass and she doesn't train."

He parks the car, turning the engine off and opening the doors, "Thanks for that. Anyways, I'll take him to the guest entrance." Ben sighs, pulling on Carlos' backpack as Audrey smiles at Evie, "Now, I don't know what happened between you and Mal back there, but, from now on, you're free to see her face and kick her ass anytime you want."

In her hand was a pass, an ID of some sort with her name on it. "Welcome to SHIELD, Evelyn Stark."  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  


"Woah, are we just recruiting all of our classmates now?" Mal asks as she squints her eyes at Carlos, confirming that, yeah, it is him who was with her friends. One of her eyes were swollen, her nose was definitely broken and she had bruises all over her face and body. Without Evie she'd probably been worse than what she was now.

"Yes." Jane mutters, pushing her to the seat and immediately inspecting her cuts and bruises, scanning her and seeing more than Natasha has, finding more cuts on her back and a bruised rib, "Well, guess who's not training today?"

"Carlos?" Mal asks hopefully, not really wanting to be on the sidelines, especially when she's supposed to train Evie. Lonnie rolls her eyes, "You're staying back. You can't damage yourself more."

"Bold of you to assume I'm not damaged inside out already." Mal mutters, not really expecting a snort to come out of Evie, then a smile, then a small laugh that has her melting. It caught her in this stupid trance that she doesn't even realize that she's been carried to the infirmary.

Whatever Evie had before, this time, it stands out. Those dull brown eyes she stared at a day ago now turns to a shade of chocolate, like the one she eats during Christmas, the ones Clint would use and melt to make their hot cocoa better.

Then her hair, usually, if she sees black hair, she'd describe it as, "black," or, "plain," but now, the artist in her just screams that Evie's hair is one of the most beautiful and majestic black she's ever seen. And it fucking sucks because of all people, it's _Evie._ It's _Evelyn Grimhilde Stark_ that she's looking at this way.

"Yep, definitely a bruised rib and a broken neck." Audrey mutters, snapping Mal out of her trance as she stares at her friend, "What do you mean a broken neck? If you can't see, I can move it freely." She retorts, moving her head from side to side with ease when Uma smirks.

"If it isn't broken then why were you stuck staring at Evie?" She asks smugly, teasing the blonde with a smile as the rest of their friends, with the exception of Evie herself began laughing or making noises such as, "oooh's," and, "ahhh's," which makes the two beet red.

"Looks like Evie's voice is gone. She didn't say anything about it." Audrey adds on, giving more fuel to the fire. Mal and Evie just stay there, unmoving and now removing their gazes from each other as they tried to make up a lie or something.

That is until Ben was called, one of the STRIKE's members calling him over to the side, probably because he was wanted by his uncle or something. Usually, Ben was smiling, bubbly, happy, but the moment he was called everything changed drastically.

His eyes began to dim, his smile turns to a frown and his hands began to shake as he walks outside. No one really knew what happened to him but surely it was bad. "Should we follow him?" Carlos asks worriedly, not really used to being in this kind of life when someone else enters the room.

"I'm not even going to ask who are you but welcome to the team. And no, you can't follow him." Natasha sighs, entering the room with Steve, Clint and Bruce behind her, all of them wearing training gear except for the latter who was with them just to check on Mal before leaving.

"Welcome to the team, I guess?" Chad mutters, patting his back as Clint raises his arms and rocking him back and forth. Carlos was a little unstable, giving Clint the conclusion that he belongs in the logistics department. Which, was right.

"Let me guess, you're great with computer codes and hacking?" He asks knowingly, turning his hearing aid up, Carlos nods, "Yes, sir. Hope that I could help here." He smiles, not really knowing what mess he's gotten himself into.

"Good, one of them's retiring today. Welcome." He says, patting his back again as Natasha walks towards Mal, standing beside Evie while Bruce tries to ease her bruised ribs, giving her pain medication and putting an ice pack above her ribs. "Don't let her train. One kick and she can suffer with actual broken ribs."

"Something happened between the two of you today." Natasha whispers, crossing her arms and smirking at the younger girl beside her. Evie doesn't know if she heard the redhead correctly or she was dreaming, but she composes herself, "Excuse me, ma'am?"

"That look you two were sharing. I might not be the most romantic person in this room but I know what admiration looks like." She begins, turning to Evie with a small smile, "I didn't see that between the two of you a few days ago, but definitely now. That couldn't happen if nothing happened between you two."

"You can either deny it or tell me the truth. I don't care what you do, just please don't hurt my Mal. She's gone through so much." Nat sighs, staring at the blonde who was now wincing in pain as Steve helps her up, flashing Natasha a small smile when she sees her looking.

At first, Evie didn't understand why of all people, it was Natasha who took care of Mal and raised her. She didn't understand how they _worked_ as a duo. How their dynamic didn't become too _destructive_.

She never understood how _the_ Black Widow herself raised someone as, proper, caring and _genuine_ as Mal. She never understood how until she sees the way they both care for each other. How one's pain can hurt the other. How the other's happiness makes the other smile.

The two of them went through nearly the same childhood and Nat, she— she just made sure that Mal wouldn't experience the same things she did. That's why she tried her absolute fucking best to make Mal happy. Mal was the reason she tried to be better. And Natasha was Mal's inspiration to be the best.

"I-I won't." She replies, finally, after a few more seconds as Natasha grins, leaving her alone and walking away with Clint to help Bruce out when Ben comes back. His face was pale, he was sweating and his hands were beginning to shake more rapidly.

Audrey and Gil were quick to help him on a seat as Steve jumps off of the ring. "Ben? Kid, are you okay?" He asks worriedly as Ben avoids his gaze for a while, "I-I'm fine. J-Just a little shaken up." He smiles nervously, still avoiding Steve's eyes.

"Are you sure?" The Super Soldier asks one more time as he gives Ben the bottle of water, the boy nods, "Yeah." He mutters silently, Steve nods, "I'll go call your parents. Have you picked up." He adds, leaving the room and the teens alone. 

"HYDRA здесь. Они проникли SHIELD." He says in perfect Russian, which, none of them understand. None of them except Mal and Evie, both staring at the boy with their jaws dropped to the ground. 

"Как ты узнал?" Mal asks, replying to the boy, still confusing the others until Evie speaks up, "Они сделали это с тобой?" She asks this time, Ben just nods, "Да и да." 

"What the hell is he saying?" Jay worriedly asks, pacing back and forth, he doesn't get a direct answer when Mal turns to Evie, hesitantly locking their eyes together, "Ты понимаешь латынь?" She questions, the Stark heiress shakes her head, "Le français, tu comprends le français?"

"Oui. La plupart d'entre nous le font." Gil answers for them while the rest nods, Carlos just furrows his eyebrows, putting his earbuds on, "I'm google translating you guys." He mumbles, wanting to join in on the conversation. 

"Auds, pouvez-vous traduire pour nous?" Mal requests at the brunette, really wanting to get to the bottom of this, Audrey agrees, walking over to the table and grabbing the nearest pen and paper she could get. 

"Ce que Ben a dit plus tôt, c'est que HYDRA a infiltré le SHIELD." Evie says gently, "HYDRA? Que voulez-vous dire?" Lonnie questions, staring at the boy with a confused gaze, "Ils étaient à l'intérieur du SHIELD au moment de sa construction. Ce n'est qu'une question de temps avant qu'ils ne prennent le relais. Mon oncle est à la tête de tout cela."

"What? We've been friends for so long and you tell us this, _now_?" Audrey snaps, glaring at Ben, "It's because I just found out, Audrey." He mutters, attempting to stand up with Jay and Gil helping him, "I just found out and we have to tell the others."

"Why didn't you tell Steve earlier?" Uma asks, a little suspicious about it all when Ben sighs, "Because the guards were still in the perimeter while he's with us. I figured Mal would understand." 

"I still don't know what you said earlier meant." Carlos pipes up as Mal rolls her eyes, limping to the table and scribbling all the translations down. One by one until he shuts up. 

_HYDRA has infiltrated SHIELD. They're the ones who did this to Ben. HYDRA's been inside SHIELD since the beginning and we're all just learning about it now. Alexander Pierce is the head of HYDRA right now, too bad for us since he's the secretary in SHIELD. I need you to throw this paper in that green bottle with the yellow fluid on your right after you read this. We can't have any evidence of it._

She slips the paper towards him and he reads it quickly, his face morphing from confusion to realization as he complies to her request, throwing the paper on the bottle. He watches as the acid breaks it, until it was no longer existent. 

"We have to tell someone." The blonde whispers, now starting to panic as she looks around if there were more guards. Thankfully, Steve and Natasha return, "Tell someone what?" He asks, "That HYDRA is infiltrating SHIELD." Evie mumbles, not really sure that the two heard it. They did. And they thought it was incredulous. 

"What? No, they aren't. If we are, we'd know." Natasha chuckles, not really sure what they're on, "It's what Ben said. _They_ did that to him." Uma points out, "SHIELD doesn't work with HYDRA. Uma, of all people, you should know that."

"Oh my god, would you just listen to us?" Mal exclaims, finally snapping and nearly crumbling down. She doesn't really know how to handle everything. She doesn't know who to believe and she's still confused about what's happening between her and Evie. 

"Look, we understand you're concerned for Ben, but his dad is downstairs. Training is cancelled today and you," Nat points to Mal, "You should go rest before those bruised ribs turn to broken ones." She says sternly before helping Ben up, walking away with him and Steve as they headed downstairs. "If they don't believe us, maybe my dad would."

"That's bullshit." Director of SHIELD, Nicholas J. Fury snorts as he walks, his long coat billowing behind him while his daughter and her friends follow him, "But, dad, don't you think, even in the slightest that it's true?"

"Oh, I believe it. Yes, I do. But they're no match for SHIELD. They can have the most men they have but we'll be prepared. So you kids have nothing to worry about." He replies, turning around to face them. Evie and Carlos felt a little uneasy, the man was scary. 

"Also, Miss Stark, Mister De Vil, welcome to SHIELD. I expect a lot from the two of you." He smiles, Evie gets how he'd know her name but not Carlos', "Don't look too confused, your mom makes the uniforms for SHIELD. Surprised you don't know that."

And that was the final thing he had said before leaving them all alone. "Well, looks like we're doomed." Uma mumbles before shaking her head, "Training's cancelled, right? You should go home."

"Yeah, I probably should. My mother and I are about to have a talk." Carlos gulps as he turns away, catching up with Chad and Jay who had already left. Mal just leans over the railing, staring down at the multiple floors of SHIELD as she ignores the pain on her body. 

"Something's bothering you." She hears behind her, and usually, she'd push her away but this time, maybe Nat was right. Maybe give her a chance. "You should go home. It's getting late, not sure if I'd like the Tony Stark getting on my ass." She chuckles dryly, biting her lip to stop the grunt she was abot to release. 

"Look, I know we're not the closest. Heck, we're not even friends. But let me help you this one time. Where's your room?" She asks, taking Mal's arm, the blonde doesn't fight back. "We'll have to take the elevator. Thirteenth floor. Third door from the right."

Evie helps her, lettng her arm drape around her neck as they walk to the elevators together, entering it and pressing on the button. They just stood there in silence, not the awkward and tension filled one, it was— it was weird. It was comforting. 

"My dad won't really care. I'm stuck in Stark Tower. He's in Malibu." Evie says, answering Mal's earlier statement. "You're alone in that big ass building?" She chuckles when Evie rolls her eyes. "No. Of course there's staff. Then, I have multiple AI's, multiple bots. And Harry."

"I'm surprised you two aren't together. You and Hook." The blonde mutters, looking up at the raven haired girl who only laughs, "I'm a lesbian, Mal. I don't like him that way." She smiles, giving the other girl a moment of realization. "Explains the vibe you give me."

"What?" She asks, actually intrigued by what Mal was telling her, "You just had this, uh, gay vibe to me. Maybe it's my gaydar." She replies, shrugging, "About Hook, I feel like he'd be a great addition to our little team. Does he have any special abilities?"

"He knows a lot about Vibranium. He's good at swords and he had martial arts training since he was three." She replies, remembering each skill Harry could do that would apply to being a SHIELD Agent. Mal nods, looking in front of her as the elevator stops, wrapping her arms around Evie's waist this time as they walked to her room, or, apartment. 

"Do you want some food? A cup of water? An apple?" She asks, attempting to be polite when Evie shakes her head, "I'll call a driver to pick me up. What I want, though, is to see you and your friends next Friday. I'm taking you guys to Manhattan to trick or treat."

"Aren't we too old to trick or treat?" Mal smirks in reply, Evie just scoffs, "No we're not. Just, I hope I'd see you guys." She smiles before walking away, "See you, Mal." She bids, waving at Mal as she presses the elevator button, entering the doors as Mal just smiles, "See you, E."

That was the last thing Evie heard before the doors closed. "Bye, then, M."


	12. 11

Mal closes the door behind her, smiling, clutching her rib and shaking her head as she clicks her tongue, the image of Evie smiling at her never leaving her mind. And, it's weird, like, okay, she's bi, she's bound to be attracted to women but what the absolute fuck?

There's really just _something_ about the girl, something Uma, Jane, Lonnie or even Audrey doesn't have. And she had a crush on the brunette in fifth grade so that's saying something. She sighs, shaking her head, "Halloween. She's invited you in Halloween. Don't fuck it up. Give her a chance."

"Give who a chance?" She hears from above her, making her jump and bump her head on the door as she looks up, seeing Clint and Thor on the vents, she furrows her eyebrows, "What the fuck are you two doing there?"

Thor just shrugs, his mouth filled with— "Hold on, are those my poptarts?" Mal asks, squinting her eyes as she extends her hands, hissing in pain when the pain returns to her ribs, "I would trade your poptarts for gold, Lady Mal, I had no idea it was yours. My apologies." Thor apologizes, dropping two golden coins down at the blonde who catches it with her free hand.

"Why are you two up there?" She asks curiously, leaning on the wall as Clint smiles, "We're hiding from your parents." He replies, getting a nod of agreement from the god of thunder as Mal glares at them, "Okay, now go hide elsewhere, I don't want two grown men watching me."

"Shall we go, Barton?" Thor asks, about to close the air ducts when Clint sends Mal a smile, "Look, whoever you're giving a chance, hope it works." He tells her before closing the vents, going elsewhere, from what Mal heard.

The moment she knew they were far away, she checked, she scanned them, she enters her room, flopping down on the bed and ignoring the pain on her abdomen as she opens her phone, dialing Uma's number, despite the girl just being somewhere in the building.

It took her a few rings before the girl picks up, "Yes? Who gave you the right to interrupt my silent elevator ride?" She asks teasingly as Mal rolls her eyes, "Bullcrap. You and I both know that you guys probably wrecked the elevator." She replies, knowing damn well Jay had farted in there or something.

Uma laughs, stepping out of it and ending the call as they all head to Mal's room, surprising the annoyed blonde as she lied down on her bed, "Good, you're all here, there's something I have to tell you." She starts, sitting down and leaning on the headboard as Jane jumps on the bed with Audrey following her. Mal scrunches her face in annoyance.

"You and Evie kissed." Chad teases, smirking from his place on the threshold, his arms crossed above his chest, Mal growls, hissing at him and throwing a ball of paper as she shakes her head in denial, "No. But Evie is involved now that you mentioned her."

"This got a lot more interesting, please, tell me more." Uma smiles, sitting down on the blonde's desk with her chin resting on her knuckles, an annoying smile etched on her lips as Mal glares at her, "She asked, well, more like, told me that she wants to take us to Manhattan for Halloween."

"You mean the one place where people give out cash when they run out of candy?" Jay asks, more interested in this than ever as he moves closer to the blonde, Mal smirks, nodding, "Exactly."

"Are you sure we're going to Manhattan and she's not going to kill us inside her multi million laboratory?" Gil asks warily as Jane nods, Mal can only shrug, "Do you really think that she could kill us? She can't even touch me."

"Whatever you say, Mal. We're just going to pretend that we can't smell her perfume all over you." Audrey smirks, standing up and about to leave when the blonde glares at her, "Do you ever shut up, you bitch?"

"No she does not and neither will we. It's late, we better go." Jay chuckles, about to leave the room when Mal stares at them incredulously from her bed, "It's late? You live a _floor_ below me."

"And? Doesn't mean our parents wouldn't be worried. Goodnight, Mal." Jane laughs, leaving the room with the rest following her as Mal leans on her bed, rubbing her eyes tiredly as she took her phone.

**mal [ 8:03 pm ]**   
**lmao hi . just wanted to say thanks and goodnight. hope you got home safely.**

**evie [ 8:05 pm ]**   
**didn't expect this from you. but, you're welcome. i did get home safely, thanks for the concern. have you eaten? you gotta take your pain meds.**

**mal [ 8:06 pm ]**   
**must u be this concerned for me ???**

**evie [8:06 pm ]**   
**i will physically fight you if you don't look after yourself.**

Mal stares at the screen for a while, fighting the urge to smile as her thumbs hover above the keyboard. One second, Evie was someone she had considered her enemy, her fiend, someone she wouldn't talk to.

Then fast forward a few weeks later and she's out here, debating to herself whether or not falling for the Stark was an option.

**evie [ 8:11 pm]**   
**mal?? are you okay?? text back i'm kinda worried x**

**mal [ 8:11 ]**   
**are u getting attached to me, stark?**   
**also, i want to go.**   
**i mean, WE want to gi.**   
***go**   
**sorry got a typo there**

**evie [ 8:12 pm ]**  
 **no i'm not. don't be too full of yourself. also, that's good, can't wait to see your costumes** 🥰

**mal [ 8:14 pm ]**   
**i refuse to be friends with ppl who uses emojis**

**evie [ 8:15 pm ]**  
 **shut up** ✨❤️🦋🥰  
 **you consider me your friend? that's new...**

**mal [ 8:16 pm ]**   
**fuck off and go eat or smth. im gonna go.**

**evie [ 8:18 pm ]**   
**geez okay. goodnight, see you tomorrow, m.**

**mal [ 8:19 pm ]**  
 **goodnight, e** 🖤  
  
  


"Oh, wow, that's the first time I've seen you smile like that." At the sound of Natasha's voice, Mal removes her gaze from the phone and to the redhead instead, shaking her head, "What? Saw a funny video." She mumbles, shutting it off and placing it on her desk when the woman enters her room, sitting down beside her and placing a tray down on the bed.

"Searched the pantry and all I can get was a jelly donut and some Chinese take out." She chuckles, a little apologetically as Mal nods, taking the carton and gulping the dumplings, "I'm sorry about laughing at you kids earlier. It just seemed so absurd."

"You're best friends with someone who slept for seventy years and you call us absurd?" Mal mutters disbelievingly, a little disappointed by their reactions as Nat sighs, "Look, I don't usuall apologize but we're sorry. _I'm_ sorry. If anything comes up and we are under HYDRA, then I'll make sure to give all the credit to you kids."

Scoffing, the blonde shakes her head, staring at the woman, "Thanks. I'm sorry I get too crabby." She apologizes, leaning her head on the spy's shoulder as Natasha laughs, "When are you not?"

"Fuck off." Mal replies, closing her eyes and sighing. They were quiet for a while, just the sound of sirens and cars were heard in the distance, maybe some music too. The room was a little dim with only one light open.

"I'm glad you're giving Evie a chance." Nat smiles, stroking the blonde's hair, "Why do you want me to trust her so much? What is it with her?" She asks, tilting her head and taking another bite of her food, "Because I know that once you and her connect, you'll dominate the Avengers. You two alone can be better than Steve and I."

"You really think so?" She asks. Mal wasn't usually one to imagine or one to be proud of herself but the moment Natasha tells her that she could be better, she slowly believes in herself. "When have I ever doubted you, dragon?"

"Are we not over with that nickname you Russian Psycho?" Mal retorts, crossing her arms and glaring at the agent, "Go to sleep and take your medicine. You're going to need to make a costume."

Mal can only smirk as she eats the remaining food, taking her medicine and falling asleep. Maybe, just maybe, giving Evie a chance won't be that much of a bad idea after all.   
  
  


* * *

  
  
  


"Miss Stark, there is someone waiting for you inside the lobby." JARVIS announces at seven o'clock during a Saturday morning, Evie groans, burying her head further into the pillows, "Tell them to go away."

"It's your classmate, ma'am. Do you want me to tell them to reschedule?" He asks once more, Evie was about to answer when she hears the banging from her elevator doors, "Stark, wake the fuck up and let me in!"

Expecting Harry, Audrey, Jane or even Carlos, she was sure as hell surprised when she hears Mal, her voice echoing around the small space, "JARVIS let her in, please." She calls out to the AI, immediately finding her slippers and her robe as she greets the blonde, "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I asked Harry if he would like to switch with me. You're matching with _me_ this Halloween." Mal says with no hesitance in her voice, Evie raises her eyebrow, "I was nice to you last night but wow, is this how it feels when you're being nice to someone?"

"Look, Stark, I want to give you a chance. You're my baggage, you're my trainee. The least I can do is bond with you and be your friend to make sure we don't fuck up the Avengers. They're my family, and now, as much as I hate to say this, you're part of it too." Mal mutters, pouring her heart out and remembering the whole speech she made up the night before when she was yelling at Harry.

Evie just gawks at her, hands on her hips, jaw dropped to the ground, "I- oh, wow, okay." She mutters, taking a seat in front of Mal as the blonde crosses her arms, "And hey, I'm sorry for annoying you. For being your enemy the past few weeks. I'm sorry I didn't give you a chance the moment you tried being friends with me."

"At least you know how to apologize." Evie smirks, looking up at the blonde who could only smile back at her, "How about we start over again?" Mal suggests, her delirious ass that's running on coffee smiling brightly at the equally sleep deprived raven haired girl. Evie can only yawn and nod.

Mal enters the elevator and gets out immediately, which, makes the other girl laugh as she sits on the couch, "Uh, hi, seen as you're the only person in here, let me introduce myself." She says nervously, scratching the back of her neck before extending her hand, "I'm Maleficent Bertha Romanoff, and you are?"

Evie stares at the outstretched hand, taking it with a smile, "I'm Evelyn Grimhilde Stark, nice to meet you, Romanoff." She replies, retracting her hand as Mal grins back at her, "And look, not to sound too bossy or anything but will you please go shower? We're racing against Uma and Audrey and I refuse to lose."

Evie can only roll her eyes as she enters her room, leaving the blonde alone as she hops inside the shower. Mal leans on the couch, taking notice on the framed photos on the wall. Curiously, she silently stands up and heads towards it.

There were four photos, the first one was Evie with Harry, probably when they were ten or something, both holding vaccuum cleaners as they wore brown suits, much like the ones in Ghostbusters.

The next one was with Pepper Potts, the two of them facing the sunset in Malibu, Mal can only gawk at the view they had in their home back there. The next one was Evie alone, on the piano, which surprised the blonde.

She moves her gaze to the last one, the photo was encased in a golden frame with blue accents. It was also bigger than the rest of the other photos. This one was Evie with her father, both laughing at something. She doesn't know which age, but, from the blacked eye, it's probably when she beat Tony up as a child or some other mission.

And honestly, she expected the raven haired girl to be resentful to her father, to hate her last name, to treat it like a curse. She expected Tony to hate his daughter, to treat her like nothing, like she was the worst thing to come to him with his persona but, she was wrong.

Because just from staring at the photo right in front of her, she just _knew_ that Tony did anything for his daughter. That he did all the best he could, changing his ways, becoming not just a superhero but a hero Evie can look up to, being who he was now. He did everything for Evie, and look how she turned out.

They might've hated each other for the most part but, in some moments, she could see how caring, how loving, how genuine and kindhearted the raven haired girl was. Honestly, you wouldn't believe she's a Stark at some points.

Evie stares at the blonde inside her living room, a small smile painted on her pink, plump lips as she stares at the picture. She's never seen Mal smile like this. This- this smile was different. Her eyes were twinkling, her dimples were showing and, she looked so calm, so _angelic_.

"Are you done staring at me and my dad or can we go? I thought we were racing against Audrey and Uma?" She smirks, crossing her arms above her chest as the leather skids against the fabric of her shirt, Mal takes some time before turning to her, "Yeah. Just, wow, are you sure your dad's Tony Stark?"

"Are you sure you grew up with Natasha Romanoff?" Evie retorts with a smirk, ruffling the blonde's hair and tugging on her collar as she pulls her inside the elevator. "Why is it so hard for you to believe that he's my dad?"

"Because it's, well, it's Tony _fucking_ Stark. He's got this whole, "genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist," thing going on. You're like an average white girl from Los Angeles. You don't hate your dad, too." She explains incredulously, Evie could only laugh, "He never gave me a reason to hate him. I always thought he wasn't my father. He did _twenty_ DNA tests for me to just prove his point."

"You really love him, don't you? He did his best for you." Mal replies, although it was weird that she was talking to the girl about this, she feels comfortable, she feels welcomed to listen and not intruding.

"How about you? I refuse to believe your parents are _the_ Black Widow and Captain America. I mean, how does _that_ work?" She asks instead, Mal can only laugh, "It doesn't. We're a mess. We can't cook for shit, we nearly burned down the headquarters, we ruined the gym, I accidentally shot Steve, we— we don't work."

Evie nods her head, stepping off of the elevator as Mal puts her hands inside her pockets, "We don't work but they're the only people who ever cared for me. Especially Nat. She literally took me in when I nearly killed them. I know it doesn't make sense."

"You're right about that. I expected someone silent and deadly if they were raised by her." Evie chuckles, giving Mal a reason to smile, "Well, yeah, but, it really doesn't make sense. She taught me how to fight, how to be deadly, but behind that she taught me how to read, how to have fun, how to write. I owe everything to her. I couldn't lose her."

"How about you friends?" The raven haired girl asks silently as the cold, morning breeze of New York hits their skin, the blonde sighs, "They're a pain in my ass. _You're_ a pain in my ass. But I guess I have to live with it. Anyways,"

At that, she leads Evie to the parking space where her motorbike was waiting for them. A black dirt bike with purple accents with two helmets on the side. Mal smiles, "Feel free to choose any helmet."

"This is our ride?" Evie asks surprised, still staring at the bike as Mal grins, "Don't worry. I have a license, I'm trained and I only fell off thrice."

"Thrice?" The other girls asks incredulously, facing the blonde as she secures the blue helmet on her head, Mal smirks, "First of all, I was being chased by the enemy _and_ it was night." She tries reasoning out, "Trust me, for once."

"You asking me to trust you is frightening." Evie retorts, yet, despite her words, she takes the blonde's hand and positions herself on the back of the bike, "You can either hold on to the back or hold on to me. But never squeeze me, I swear."

At that, Evie smirks, squeezing the blonde as they started to go, cruising on the roads of Manhattan, New York with the fall breeze, Mal takes a turn, feeling Evie's grip tighten on her as they went faster, she smirks. "Hold tighter, princess."

Evie didn't fully hear and register what she meant until Mal went faster, weaving through cars with such ease as they honk at her, Evie can only scream as Mal laughs at her, "Hold on!" Mal yells, pressing on the breaks and drifting the bike to enter the other road. 

"Mal!" Evie shouts, closing her eyes as the blonde grins, finally slowing down after a few minutes to stop right in front of the store, "Now I wonder how you'll become an Avenger." She teases, taking her helmet off as Evie sat there, petrified, not moving a muscle as she stares at Mal, "I flew a helicopter at nine, went paragliding at eleven and even wore my dad's suit, knew my way around it and zoomed around Malibu at thirteen. And yet, I've never been more scared in my entire life."

"It's because you're not the one taking control of it. You get scared that it isn't you who takes the wheel. It's that simple." Mal responds, shaking her head and helping the raven haired girl off as she silently takes the helmet off, "Well, you aren't wrong. I hate it when people tell me what to do."

"And yet you did what I told you. Take a shower? You did, go with me? You did, hold tighter? You did." She smirks, turning around and walking inside the costume shop as Evie follows behind. Maybe, just, _maybe_ , having someone take control of her life for once won't be bad after all. 

It took them ten shops, fifteen bathroom breaks, three cans of sodas, each, two hotdogs and three ice cream sundaes before they finally settled on whatever costume they'll be matching on Halloween. They've beaten Gil and Harry, yet not Uma and Audrey, which was a bummer and a surprise to the both of them. 

Mal stops her bike in front of Stark Tower, letting Evie hop off with the bags she had in her hands, "So, I'll see you in school, yeah?" Mal asks hopefully, giving her one last smile before she turns, "I'll see you in school. Thanks for the day. I had fun." 

"I had fun too." Mal replies hesitantly, Evie smiles, waving at her before entering the building. Mal can only close her eyes and sigh, whatever she's gotten herself into, she's sure as hell stuck now. She's friends with Evie and there's no going back. Not even if she wanted to. 

"Damn you, Evie Stark." Mal chuckles to herself, taking a deep breath before starting her engine once more. 

* * *

Days had passed and the day they've all been waiting for has finally arrived. Mal stares at herself in the mirror, silently laughing at herself. She was bathed in purple from head to toe. Honestly, she thought she'd look stupid with the purple wig on until she tried it. 

Her body was wrapped in leather, whether it was her ripped jeans, her shirt or her jacket. Everything, including her gloves, were all purple. The only other color seen was either pink or green and the black of her boots. 

"No fucking way." She can hear from behind her, she turns around, seeing Uma wear an outfit similar to hers, only a little bit more pirate-y. "You wearing a costume from Descendants just doesn't sit right with me." Uma mutters, staring her down as Mal glares at her, "Oh, but you wearing one sits right with me?"

Uma shakes her head, laughing, dragging her outside as Mal takes the backpack that came with it, "You have got to be kidding me." She mumbles, seeing the rest of their friends all dressed up as characters from the movies. 

Jay was donning a red leather vest with a beanie, Jane was wearing a light blue dress with a pink bow on the middle, Carlos was wearing this faux fur, red and white leather jacket, Harry was wearing a red leather coat with a tricorn hat and a hook, Chad was wearing this ridiculous cape. Just, they looked stupid, okay? 

"Well fuck, I hate this." Mal mumbles, already regretting her costume as Natasha appears from the corner, seeing the kids, she laughs, "You all look stupid." She mutters, taking a photo of it as she throws the keys to Jay, "Be back by midnight."

"Yes ma'am." They all chorused, moving past her as they enter the elevator. Soon enough, they were all inside the van and headed to Stark Tower, meeting up with Evie. "Ah have access to 'er floor, would ye wait for us?" Harry asks as he fiddles with his cards, Mal just shakes her head, already entering the elevators and leaving them alone inside the lobby. 

Mal whistles a tune, waiting for the elevator to stop. And look, she was expecting it, okay? But what she wasn't expecting was how great Evie could pull off the all blue attire. Like, it was weird seeing her in this, it was weird yet so refreshing. 

"You know, that backup costume doesn't sound so bad right now." Mal chuckles as she enters the floor, having access to it the night she dropped Evie off, the other girl can only raise an eyebrow at her, "Why?" 

"Surprisingly, the whole friend group we're in are matching." She replies, leaning on the wall as Evie laughs, "That's just better."

The moment the two went down, everyone else stands up. Whoever said trick or treating is for children is wrong because they're all sixteen and yet here they were, enjoying every moment of it. Even more than the actual kids. 

"Will someone exchange their Twix bar for a Mars bar?" Lonnie announces amongst the group as they walk back to the tower, Chad raises his hand, "I'd trade it." 

"I can't believe Uma got cash." Gil mumbles, still staring at the bills inside the agent's bag, she smiles, "Neither do I. Hey, Stark, Thanks for this." 

"It's nothing. It was nice being with you guys." She laughs, shaking her head as Mal stays back with Harry, "Yer treatin' Evie differently. What's up?" He asks, swinging his bag over his shoulder as Mal stares at the blue haired girl. 

"Well, I thought I'd give her a chance." Mal explains vaguely, Harry sighs, "Ah like ye, Mal, ye seem good for 'er. Ah don't know what is yer deal with 'er right now but treat 'er right." He says sternly Mal nods her head, "I'm going to make sure she doesn't get hurt. I promise."

"Also, we'd love to see you inside SHIELD. I'm pretty sure at least Ben or Evie had told you what our deal is. Think about it, we're open, to you, I mean. You'd be great for our team." She opens up as Harry smirks, "Ah'll see ye guys next time."

And with that, he was walking away with Gil as Mal catches up with the rest of the group. "Hey, thanks for tonight, Evie." 

Evie turns her head, meeting Mal's green eyes as she chuckles, "It's nothing. Like I said, it was fun hanging out with you." She replies, unconsciously linking their arms together. It took her a moment to realize and was about to pull away when she did but Mal tightens her grip. "Don't. You're— warm. Stay." 

And they can deny it all the can, they can say it was, "platonic," or whatever but no matter what they say, they knew they felt something more than that.


End file.
